Please join us at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19 at the University of Florida Cancer-Genetics Research Complex auditorium for an hourlong town hall meeting with former Sen. Bill Frist, M.D., R-Tenn., who will deliver a talk titled “Global Health: We Can Make a Difference” as part of the College of Medicine’s Dean’s Lecture Series. A reception will be held immediately afterward.

The event precedes a function sponsored by UF’s Bob Graham Center for Public Service that will feature Frist and another former U.S. Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Frist and Daschle, both considered Senate experts in public health while in office, will discuss lessons that can be learned from the current health-care debate for future bipartisanship at 7 p.m. in the Pugh Hall Ocora.

While the discussion will center on health care, the real purpose of the forum will be to discover what lessons can be learned for bipartisan cooperation in crucial issues facing the nation in the coming decade, said former Sen. Bob Graham. In the current health-care debate, Republicans have been virtually united in opposing health-care legislation in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate.

“By the 19th of January we’re maybe going to know how it’s going to come out,” said Graham, referring to health-care reform. “But there are some lessons to be learned from this health-care debate – some lessons to be applied, and some lessons to be avoided.

“We’ve got some other big issues on the horizon – climate change, immigration, economic policy, education reform,” he added. “We need to learn from the health-care debate how we can have a more civil, a more constructive, and a more bipartisan approach to these major challenges facing our nation.”

Tickets are not required for Frist’s global health talk in the afternoon, but are required for the Graham Center function in the evening. For more information, visit the Graham Center Web site, www.graham.centers.ufl.edu.