Georges C. Benjamin, MD '78, FACP, FACEP (Emeritus) is well known as a leader, practitioner and administrator in public health. Since 2002, Benjamin has been the executive director of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the nation's oldest and largest organization of public health professionals. He came to that post from his position as secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where he played a key role developing Maryland's bioterrorism plan and oversaw the expansion and improvement in the state’s Medicaid program.
Now residing in Gaithersburg, Md., Benjamin is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University Of Illinois College Of Medicine. He began his medical career in 1981 in Tacoma, Washington, where he managed a 72,000-patient visit ambulatory care service as chief of the acute illness clinic at the Madigan Army Medical Center. A few years later, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he served as chief of emergency medicine at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After leaving the army, he chaired the department of community health and ambulatory care at the District of Columbia General Hospital. He was promoted to acting commissioner for public health for the District of Columbia and later directed one of the busiest ambulance services in the nation as interim director of the emergency ambulatory bureau of the District of Columbia Fire Department.
The author of more than 90 scientific articles and book chapters, Benjamin also serves on the boards of Research America, Partnership for Prevention, and the Reagan-Udall Foundation. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.
James C. Pritchard, MD '58, BS '54, Res '63, is retired president of Pathology Consultants S.C. in Geneva. He is a member of the UI Foundation, the UIC Alumni Council, a past president of the Medical Alumni Association and a former member of the Dean's Advisory Board. He has received numerous awards, including the William E. Winter Award for Outstanding Advocate Leadership from the UI Foundation, the UI Alumni Achievement Award and the UI Distinguished Service Award.
Pritchard was born in Pontiac, IL, and received a BS in chemistry in 1954 from the University of Illinois in Urbana. He received his MD from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1958 and interned at DC General Hospital in Washington, D.C., before completing a pathology residency at Illinois Research Hospital. In 1963 he began his practice at Delnor Hospital in St. Charles and Community Hospital in Geneva, where he practiced until 2003 as director of laboratories and pathology. He taught for many years at his alma mater as a clinical associate professor of pathology.
An accomplished pianist who performs solo and chamber concerts in the Chicago area, Pritchard lives in Geneva with his wife of fifty-three years, Bonnie, and has three children and six grandchildren.
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