AIC Welcomes Baystate President, Noted Filmmaker to April 7 Event

SPRINGFIELD — Dr. Mark Keroack, president and CEO of Baystate Health, will be American International College’s (AIC) guest speaker at the Desmond Tutu Public Health Awareness Lecture Series on Tuesday, April 7 at 11 a.m. in the Griswold Theater of the Karen Sprague Cultural Arts Center. Keroack’s lecture is titled “The Challenge of Health Disparities in Springfield.”

Also on Tuesday, April 7 at 11 a.m. in the West Wing of the Karen Sprague Cultural Arts Center, William Cabalerro, award-winning Latino filmmaker, composer, violinist, animator, writer, video artist, and educator, will present “From American Dreams Deferred to American Dreams: Empower, Enlighten, Express.”

Keroack provides strategic, financial, and operational oversight for all services at Baystate Health and its subsidiary health plan, Health New England. He came to Baystate Health from University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), a national alliance of 112 academic medical centers based in Oak Brook, Ill.

Prior to his national work, Keroack served on the faculty of UMass for 12 years. During that time, he focused on HIV and AIDS care and won five annual teaching awards. While at UMass, he served as the first president of the 700-physician UMass Memorial Medical Group and vice president of Medical Management for UMass Memorial Health Care. He has authored more than 50 publications.

Keroack is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Medical School and received his MPH from Boston University. He trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Caballero, who was born in New York City, is a graduate of Pratt Institute and received his master’s degree from New York University. His first documentary, American Dreams Deferred, won numerous awards and was broadcast nationally on PBS. His subsequent work, in a variety of mediums including music and video, has continued to be met with critical acclaim.

To bring awareness to the issue of public health, AIC established the Desmond Tutu Public Health Lecture Series in 2010. Archbishop Desmond Tutu served as the series’ inaugural speaker and its namesake.
Caballero’s presentation is sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Committee at AIC. Both events are free and open to the public. More information is available online at www.aic.edu.