The connection between race and health will be discussed during a 6 p.m. lecture Monday, March 22 in the Community Arts Auditorium at Wayne State University.

William Dressler, a professor of anthropology and social work at the University of Alabama, will be the first speaker in the lecture series that deals with African-American health challenges in the new millennium. Future speakers will include Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. surgeon general, and Dr. Lawrence Crane, director of the HIV/AIDS program at the Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University. Crane is an expert in the new protease inhibitor therapy.

The lecture series, designed to educate the public about the devastating effects of AIDS in the African-American community, is sponsored by the WSU departments of anthropology and occupational therapy.

According to the Michigan AIDS Fund:

* AIDS is the No. 1 killer of African-Americans ages 25 to 44;

* African-Americans are 13 percent of the nation's population but accounted for 57 percent of all new infections last year; and

* In 1996, 85 percent of the children reported with AIDS were African-American or Hispanic.

Dressler has done research around the world on the relationship between race and health. His work shows how culture puts some people at greater risk for disease than others. His work has been recognized as contributing to the understanding of differences in health status between African-Americans and European-Americans. He is president-elect of the Society for Medical Anthropology.

The lecture is free and open to the public. The Community Arts Auditorium is located at 450 Reuther Mall. For more information call the College of Liberal Arts at (313) 577-2522.