The nation’s top health official and a former adviser to four presidents will present Landon Lectures this fall at Kansas State University.

David Satcher, the U.S. surgeon general, will speak at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19, in K-State’s McCain Auditorium.

David Gergen, who currently serves as editor-at-large of U.S. News & World Report and is the author of "Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton," will speak at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 2, also in McCain.

"We’re pleased to kick off the 2001-2002 Landon Lecture Series with two individuals who have had roles in shaping U.S. policy at the highest level," said Charles Reagan, chair of K-State’s Landon Lecture Series.

"As the nation’s 16th surgeon general and assistant secretary for health, David Satcher has addressed some of the nation’s most pressing health concerns through surgeon general reports on tobacco and health and on mental health," Reagan said. "David Gergen has worked closely with four presidents, serving in the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton."

Satcher was nominated to serve as surgeon general by President Clinton in 1998. His four-year term runs through February 2002. He previously served as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry from 1993 to 1998. He was president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., from 1982 to 1993.

In addition to his duties as a newspaper editor and as a commentator, Gergen is a professor of public service at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and co-directs the school’s Center for Public Leadership. Under President Clinton, Gergen served as a presidential counselor and as a special international adviser to the president and secretary of state.

Both Satcher’s and Gergen’s lectures can be heard live on the Web at http://www.dce.ksu.edu/landon. The Web site is sponsored by K-State’s Division of Continuing Education and includes an audio archive of previous Landon Lectures.