ERIE, Pa. — The 2025-26 Speaker Series at Penn State Behrend will begin Thursday, Oct. 9, with a talk by Ala Stanford, the founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium and a former regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The program, which begins at 7:30 p.m. in Burke 180, is free and open to the public.
Stanford, a pediatric surgeon, began her college experience at Penn State Behrend. She went on to earn a degree in biology from the Penn State Eberly College of Science and a medical degree from the Penn State College of Medicine. She was the first Black female pediatric surgeon to be trained entirely in the United States.
“I always knew that I wanted to be a doctor,” she said at Penn State Behrend’s 2023 commencement, where she was the featured speaker. “Helping others fueled me. I’m a bit of an empath, I love science, and that satisfied my intellectual curiosity.”
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanford founded the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, which mobilized more than 200 health care professionals to bring testing – and later, vaccinations – to residents of Philadelphia’s minority neighborhoods. She later expanded the effort, creating the Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity.
In 2021, Stanford was named a Top 10 CNN Hero. She was USA Today’s Pennsylvania Woman of the Year and was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of 50 Women Over 50 who were changing the world.
“As a leader, Dr. Stanford is nothing short of extraordinary,” Chancellor Ralph Ford said. “She steps forward with solutions in times of crisis, and she advocates fiercely for those among us who are most often overlooked. She is a role model for our students as they prepare to become future leaders in their own fields.”
As regional director of the Department of Health and Human Services, Stanford oversaw federal health programs in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.
On Oct. 1, she announced her candidacy for Congress, running to replace U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, who is retiring after six terms in the U.S. House.
The Behrend Speaker Series, which is sponsored in part by the college’s Student Activity Fee, will continue Nov. 5 with a talk by Daniel Luttner, a managing partner at Neos by Argon & Co. He will discuss resilient leadership, sharing his experiences with COVID-19 panic buying, the blockage of the Suez Canal and ongoing global trade tensions.