Durbin Welcomes Springfield Doctor as Special Guest to Joint Session of Congress

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that his guest for tonight’s address by President Obama to a Joint Session of Congress will be Springfield resident and member of the faculty at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Dr. Janet Albers. Durbin, a member of the Senate Escort Committee, will meet with his guest prior to the joint session.

“I am honored to welcome Dr. Albers as my guest to tonight’s Joint Session of Congress,” said Durbin. “Her efforts to establish a program for uninsured, low-income adults in and around Springfield attacks one of the biggest problems we face in this country today – lack of affordable access to primary medical care. I look forward to hearing her thoughts on the President’s address and about her efforts to expand community health services in Sangamon County.”

Dr. Albers is the Program Director for the residency program in family and community medicine at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. She was born in Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, raised in Decatur, Illinois and has lived in Springfield for the last 12 years. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians and is a past president of the Sangamon County Medical Society for which she currently serves as Chairwoman of the Society’s Community Health Committee.

Under her leadership, the medical society began a project which seeks to improve access to health care for low income, uninsured residents in Sangamon County. The project, known as the Coordinated Access to Community Health (CATCH) program, is modeled after a program in DuPage County that has brought hospitals, physicians, local government, human services agencies, and community groups together to help more adults establish a medical home for primary care. Senator Durbin’s office has been closely involved in the formation of this program.