New director for student health services appointed at San Francisco State University

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS
Denize Springer
SFSU Office of Public Affairs & Publications
(415) 405-3803
(415) 338-1665
denize@sfsu.edu

Press Release published by the Office of Public Affairs & Publications

 

SAN FRANCISCO (January 4, 2005) -- Dr. Alastair K. Smith, a native of Ayrshire, Scotland joins the staff at San Francisco State University as the new director of Student Health Services. He will oversee doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals at the University's health clinic, which serves all enrolled students. Smith brings nearly 30 years of medical practice and health care management to the University's student health services.

Shortly after receiving his medical degree from the University of London and completing his Surgical and Family Practice residencies in the United Kingdom, Smith became a ship's surgeon for P&O Princess Cruise Lines, traveling the Pacific, Atlantic Mediterranean and the Antarctic oceans. In 1983 he married a fifth generation San Franciscan, completed a family practice residency at University of California, San Francisco, and became a partner in the San Francisco International Airport Medical Group. In 1993 Dr. Smith returned to P&O Princess Cruise Lines as vice president and medical director in both the Los Angeles and United Kingdom offices. Most recently Smith was president and chief medical officer for International & Maritime Health Consultants, Inc., where he helped to develop national and international guidelines, health care protocols and audit procedures. A San Francisco resident, Smith is currently pursuing the American College of Physician Executives MBA through the University of Massachusetts.

"We are pleased to have Dr. Smith as the new medical director of Student Health Services at San Francisco State University," said Penny Saffold, PhD, vice president of student affairs and dean of students. "We look forward to his innovative ideas that will propel Student Heath Services to the next level."

Smith plans to apply his experience as a medical director to enhance integrated health care, occupational health, emergency medicine and health education at SFSU. "I am interested in making the Student Health Services an integral part of the SFSU campus," Dr. Smith said. "We should always be thinking about what else can be done to improve campus life as a whole."

One of the largest campuses in the California State University system, SFSU was founded in 1899 and today is a highly diverse, comprehensive, public and urban university.

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Last modified March 17, 2005, by the Office of Public Affairs & Publications