Sep 4, 2007 -- Spencer Foreman, MD, president of Montefiore Medical Center and professor of medicine and of epidemiology and population health at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree this morning by YU President Richard M. Joel at an academic convocation at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. Montefiore is the university hospital for Einstein and is one of the largest academic medical centers in the country. In its 21 years under Dr. Foreman’s leadership, Montefiore went from the brink of financial ruin to a thriving academic medical center with state-of-the-art technology. He has devoted his life to combining medical care and outreach. President Joel paid homage to Dr. Foreman. "Widely admired as one of the most able CEOs of any hospital system in the country, you have focused on the individual patient while fashioning community service delivery systems," said President Joel. "Montefiore has become a beacon of light for quality health care delivery for the 1.4 million people of the Bronx, the region, and beyond. Central to that has been your visionary partnership with Yeshiva University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a partnership that thrives and that you encourage to this very day." Dr. Foreman has been an influential healthcare executive for more than three decades, first in Baltimore as president of Sinai Hospital and director of the United States Public Health Service Hospital, and then in New York. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) recently renamed its annual service honor the "Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Service." A past chairman of the AAMC, Dr. Foreman has served as a member of its Liaison Committee on Medical Education and Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education. The convocation was attended by Morton Lowengrub, PhD, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at YU, and Chancellor Norman Lamm. Rabbi Edward Reichman, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine at Einstein, offered the invocation and David A. Tanner, JD, chairman of Montefiore Medical Center's board, and Allen M. Spiegel, MD, Einstein's Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean, offered words of tribute to Dr. Foreman. Following graduation from Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA, Dr. Foreman received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is certified in internal medicine and pulmonary disease, and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. He is a member and past board chairman of the Greater New York Hospital Association and the League of Voluntary Hospitals, and a past board member of the American Hospital Association and the Hospital Association of New York State. He is board chairman of the Biomedical Research Alliance of New York. He also served as a member of the US Prospective Payment Assessment Commission. Dr. Foreman is a board member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, an international relief agency, and the Brookdale Institute, a health and social services body that advises the government of Israel.