2010 News

The Baccalaureate Service for the 161st Session of Rhodes College will be held May 14 at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church located at 70 N. Bellevue Blvd. beginning at 3 p.m. No seating tickets are necessary for attendance.

Rhodes President William E. Troutt will preside over the service, and Dr. Veronica Lawson Gunn, who received a B.S. degree from the college in 1991 and currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of the Tennessee Department of Health, will deliver the address.

Gunn also holds a M.D. from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Public Health degree from The Johns Hopkins University where she completed her pediatric and chief residency.

In 2002, she joined the faculty at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, where she was an active clinician, teacher and researcher. In 2005, she became the Medical Director of the Tennessee Governor’s Office of Children’s Care Coordination, where she worked with other child-serving organizations to reduce infant mortality, improve maternal health and increase early periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment. 

For more than a decade through her clinical practice, Gunn has advocated research and policy efforts for effective strategies to improve health.

In 2008, she assumed the position of Chief Medical Officer of the Tennessee Department of Health. In this capacity, she works with the Commissioner to assess the health needs of the state and to develop, implement and evaluate coordinated, effective public health programs.

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