Dymally to head institute at Drew
Officials at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science announced this week that former California Lt. Governor and U.S. Congressman Mervyn M. Dymally will lead a new health institute at the school that aims to improve healthcare in poor communities.
The new Urban Health Institute is a policy and research center that will focus on childhood obesity, diabetes, mental illness and “other persistent health problems that plague poor and underserved communities,” according to the university.
Dymally, 82, first served in the state Assembly in 1962, became California’s first African American state senator in 1966 and later became the first black lieutenant governor. He served six terms as a congressman, and after about 10 years of retirement, returned to the state Assembly in 2002. Earlier this year in a bid for state Senate, he lost the Democratic nomination to former Assemblyman Rod Wright.
-- Ari Bloomekatz
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