Dr. W. Douglas and Jane
G. Skelton
Dr. Skelton, a
Gainesville, Georgia native, attended the College of Liberal Arts from
1957-1959, leaving prior to graduation to pursue medicine at Emory University,
receiving his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1963. After an internship at the
Macon Hospital, now Navicent Health, and a psychiatry residency at Columbia in
New York, Dr. Skelton served Emory as a faculty member in psychiatry and vice
president of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, and Georgia as director of
mental health and commissioner of the Department of Human Resources.
He
became a trustee of Mercer in 1983, resigning in 1985 to become dean of
Mercer's new School of Medicine. Under his leadership, the School ranked number
one nationally in percentage of graduates choosing primary care in 1991, and in
1992 received the Gold Achievement Award from the American Academy of Family
Physicians for three consecutive years producing the highest percent of
students choosing family medicine. Dr. Skelton is recognized at both the state
and national levels as a leader in health and human services. He served on the
National Advisory Mental Health Council during the Carter administration, the
Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences as
an appointee of the first President Bush, chair of the AMA's Council on
Scientific Affairs, and on many state committees, serving as the initial chair
of both the State Health Planning Committee and the State AIDS Task Force.
Always an advocate for quality medical education, in 2012 he joined an
initiative to bring Trinity School of Medicine in St. Vincent and the
Grenadines to the standards of U.S. medical schools, a goal reached in
2015.
Jane Skelton, originally from
Byron, Georgia, moved to Gainesville, Georgia in 1953 with her career teacher
parents. She and Doug, going steady by then, graduated from Gainesville High
School in 1956 with a plan to finish college in three years, marry, and start
medical school. Jane finished Brenau University in 1959 with a bachelor of arts
in education and she and Doug, according to plan, married in 1959 and Doug
entered Emory Medical School. Jane taught school in DeKalb County to help
support the family, expanded by Anslee born in 1961 in the middle of "finals."
While at Columbia, Bill was added to the family in 1965. After Doug joined the
Emory faculty in 1969, Jane became a very successful real estate agent in
DeKalb County, a career she continued in Macon when Dr. Skelton joined Mercer
in 1985. Jane was a leading realtor for Sheridan, Solomon, and Kernaghan for
many years, and was influential in the decision of many Mercer faculty and
staff to move to Macon and join the Mercer family.
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Honorary Degree
Doctor of Science
Awarded by Mercer University
Macon, Georgia
May 6,
2006 |
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