179th Commencement Ceremony

View photos from graduation!

Thomas Jefferson University will award honorary doctoral degrees to Reverend Charles T. A. Flood, Rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Philadelphia and T. Franklin Williams, MD, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Rochester and Monroe County Hospital, NY at the Commencement Exercises of Jefferson College of Health Professions (JCHP) on Wednesday, May 14, at 10:30 a.m. at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

The Class of 2003 totals 298 graduates, including 285 bachelor of science degree recipients in the disciplines of nursing, occupational therapy, diagnostic imaging and laboratory sciences; five post-baccalaureate certificate recipients in laboratory sciences; and eight associate degree graduates. Also included in the totals are physical therapy students who will complete their combined BS-MS degree program during this summer.

Douglas MacMaster Jr., Esq., Chairman of the Board of Trustees, will present Rev. Flood for the Honorary Doctor of Medical Sciences. In addition to being Rector at St. Stephen’s, Rev. Flood also serves as Chaplain at the office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York City.

Dr. Williams will also be presented for the Honorary Doctor of Medical Sciences by Laura Gitlin, PhD, Director, Community and Homecare Research Division and Professor in JCHP’s Department of Occupational Therapy. Dr. Williams has also served as Scientific Director of the American Federation for Aging Research.

University President Paul C. Brucker, MD, will confer the student degrees. JCHP Dean James B. Erdmann, PhD, will address students and their families and present the JCHP Student Life Award. Janice Burke, PhD, OTRL/L, Chairman and Associate Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, will serve as the Grand Marshal.

The Background on the Honorary Degree Recipients

Doctor of Medical Science – Rev. Charles T.A. Flood

The Rev. Charles T.A. Flood has been Rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church located at Tenth and Ludlow Streets, on the edge of the Jefferson campus, for thirteen years. He has devoted his efforts to expanding programs and intensifying the Church’s mission. While Rector, Rev. Flood served on various commissions of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania including the Diocesan Council, Committee to Combat Racism and as chair of the Liturgical Commission.

He is also currently Chaplain at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York. Soon after September 11, 2001, he served as a field Chaplain at the site of the World Trade Center. Since that time, and currently, he continues to travel to New York, at first providing support to the hundreds of field personnel at that site and now to the family members and friends of the victims. He wrote and conducted a service on the site and wrote multi- faith prayers and meditations based on that disaster, which have been reproduced throughout the world.

Following his ordination as a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1978, he worked as chaplain at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and initiated the chaplaincy department at the Graduate Hospital. He accepted a position at Albert Einstein Medical Center as director of one of the first acute care based hospice programs in the United States. He was a founding board member of The American Journal of Hospice Care and remains on the board of The Michael Dunitz Crisis Foundation, funding training for healthcare providers.

Currently, Rev. Flood is working with Dr. Charles Hircsh, the Chief Medical Examiner in New York. on an article for the Journal of Forensic Medicine. He is also working on two other publications relating to the unique mission of multi- faith public religious leadership. He lives in Philadelphia’s Society Hill section and enjoys work in calligraphy, writing and fine arts.

Doctor of Medical Science – T. Franklin Williams, MD

T. Franklin Williams, MD, Professor of Medicine Emeritus, returned to the University of Rochester and Monroe County Hospital, Rochester, New York in August 1991. He had previously been director of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, serving in that capacity from 1983 until 1991. In March of 1995, he was also appointed Distinguished Physician at the Canandaigua, New York Veterans Administration Medical Center by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. From 1992 through 2002, he also served as Scientific Director of the American Federation for Aging Research.

For 15 years (1968 to 1983) Dr. Williams, as Professor of Medicine and Preventive and Rehabilitative Medicine and Medical Director of the Monroe Community Hospital, lead development of the University program in care, teaching and research in chronic illness and aging. He was also co-director of the University’s Center on Aging. Dr. Williams was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1976 and served three years as a member of the Institute Council. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Gerontological Society of America, American Public Health Association and a member of the Association of American Physicians, American Geriatrics Society and American Society on Aging.

Dr. Williams’ research and more than 90 publications have been concerned with metabolic diseases, including hereditary rickets and diabetes and many aspects of the care of chronically ill and aging persons. He is a member of numerous local and national boards related to aging and long-term care. Dr. Williams is based at the Monroe Community Hospital and resides in Rochester, New York.

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