Maya Angelou to Participate in Angelou Center Fundraiser

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity, part of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, will benefit from a private fundraiser called “Cocktails and Conversations,” hosted by Neiman Marcus of Charlotte. Maya Angelou will be the featured guest of the event, which will be held in Charlotte on Thursday, July 16.

Angelou is an internationally renowned poet, author, civil-rights activist and Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. Also attending the event will be John D. McConnell, M.D., the first chief executive officer of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

“We are very excited about this event and are appreciative to Dr. Angelou for attending and expressing her thoughts about health equity,” said Ronny Bell, Ph.D., M.S., director of the Angelou Center. “The purpose of this event is to raise awareness about health equity and to highlight and support research focused in this area.”

The Angelou Center recognizes the need for efforts to attain equity in health and health care for all people. The Center aims to achieve this goal through its three program areas: research, community outreach, and faculty and student development.

###

Media Relations Contacts: Megan Lunn, mlunn@wfubmc.edu, (336) 716-5437; Bonnie Davis, bdavis@wfubmc.edu, (336) 716-4977; or Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu, (336) 716-4587.

Wake

Forest University Baptist Medical Center (www.wfubmc.edu) is an academic health system comprised of

North Carolina

Baptist

Hospital

, Brenner Children’s Hospital, Wake Forest University Physicians, and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s

School

Medicine

and

Piedmont

Triad

Research

Park

. The system comprises 1,056 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and has been ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. Wake Forest Baptist is ranked 32nd in the nation by

America

’s Top Doctors for the number of its doctors considered best by their peers. The institution ranks in the top third in funding by the National Institutes of Health and fourth in the Southeast in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.