Infectious Disease Expert Sarah Long, MD, to Address Graduates at Drexel’s College of Medicine Commencement
By Greg Richter
Sarah Long, MD, an internationally renowned expert in infectious disease treatment in children, will address graduates of Drexel University’s College of Medicine during its 2022 commencement on May 13. In 1975, Long became chief of infectious diseases at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children where she continues to treat patients today.
An award-winning clinician, investigator and educator, Long has help shaped vaccine policy nationally while serving as a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and, most recently, in her current role as a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The advisory committee is tasked with reporting to the director of the CDC on vaccines and related tools for management of vaccine-preventable disease in the United States.
The College of Medicine will celebrate this year’s graduating class at the Kimmel Center Cultural Campus and the event will be livestreamed at the College’s YouTube channel.
“This is an extraordinary time to enter the field of medicine — yes, amid a pandemic, but also at a time of rapid advances in genomics, personalized medicine; and other areas of health using big data, artificial intelligence and gene editing, among other technologies to meet the challenges of this moment,” said Charles B. Cairns, MD, FACEP, FAHA, the Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Dean and senior vice president of medical affairs at the College of Medicine. “Our graduates are intellectually ready, while also trained to be empathetic clinicians and creative thinkers. Embodying all these characteristics, Dr. Long is an exceptional model for these graduates to aspire to. She started the field of pediatric infectious diseases and has led national efforts in vaccine evaluation for children.”
A graduate of Sidney Kimmel Medical College (now Jefferson), Long completed residency and fellowship training at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Long’s decades of writing and dedication to scholarship in pediatrics is partly evidenced by her work as the founding and current chief editor of the textbook “Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Disease” (now in its 6th edition) and service as an associate editor of The Journal of Pediatrics. She also was an associate editor of the “Red Book Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases” of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Among a myriad of honors and awards, Long delivered The Great Teacher’s Lecture at the National Institutes of Health and was named the alumnus of the year of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College in 2021. Long was named as one of Philadelphia magazine’s Top Doctors more than 25 times, received the Lifetime Contribution to Infectious Diseases Education Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Clinical Teaching Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Long’s portrait stands on an edifice near St. Christopher’s Hospital, thanks to The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
More information about the College of Medicine’s commencement is available at https://drexel.edu/medicine/news-events/commencement/.