Alumnus James Marks, formerly with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former U.S. assistant surgeon general, will receive a SUNY honorary degree
BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo holds its 178th commencement ceremony on Friday, April 26, from 3–5 p.m. at the UB Center for the Arts on the North Campus.
The ceremony will confer 169 graduates with MD degrees, including 2 MD/PhDs, 1 MD/MBA, 1 MD/MPH and 2 MD/OMFS degrees (MD/Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery).
James V. McDonald, MD, commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, will be the featured speaker.
His message to the graduates will focus on the concepts of resilience and maintaining joy in the practice of medicine. He will talk about the importance of maintaining both throughout their careers, especially since this class of students entered medical school just months after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Board-certified in pediatrics as well as preventive medicine, McDonald earned his MD from Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago and his MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He did his pediatric residency in the U.S. Navy.
His diverse career includes officership in the U.S. Navy, as well as private practice in rural areas where health care shortages existed. McDonald also served in the Indian Health Service in the Navajo Nation, serving as medical director of outpatient medicine in Chinle, Arizona.
UB alumnus James Marks will receive a SUNY honorary degree in science at the ceremony. A pioneer in public health and health equity, and a global leader in child and maternal health, health promotion and chronic disease prevention, he has dedicated his career to reducing health disparities and improving access to quality health care.
A 1973 graduate of the Jacobs School, Marks has held important leadership roles in public health, including serving as assistant surgeon general and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Throughout his tenure, Marks developed and advanced systematic ways to detect and prevent chronic diseases, monitor their major risk factors, and improve reproductive and infant health.
He is a former executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where he oversaw all grantmaking, research and communications activities for the nation’s largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health. He led efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic, rank the health of all U.S. counties and, with the Federal Reserve, bring together the fields of community development and public health.
A public health leader for more than 45 years and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Marks is an accomplished scholar and highly sought out expert who has received numerous state and federal awards, and served on boards and committees for national public health organizations.
Marks has remained deeply connected with his alma mater, serving as an invited speaker and meeting with aspiring medical students. In 2018, Marks and his wife, Judi, BA ’69, M.Ed. ’72, created the James and Judith Marks Family Scholarship Fund, which provides financial support to students in the Jacobs School.
