Jan. 29, 2007 – Maurice Apprey, interim dean of the Office of American-American Affairs at the University of Virginia, will present the annual State of the Office of African-American Affairs address on Thursday, Feb. 1, at 7 p.m.

The address, which is titled "Thinking and Looking Forward," is free and open to the U.Va. community and will be held in the Rotunda Dome Room.

The Office of African-American Affairs is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The Office of African-American Affairs was created in 1976 to support black students and help change the institutional culture to embrace diversity.

Apprey, a professor of psychiatric medicine and the School of Medicine's former associate dean for diversity, was named interim dean in July 2006. He has been involved in the successful recruitment and retention of minority students in the Medical School, and has taught both undergraduate and medical students, residents in psychiatry and psychology, and hospital chaplains, among others. He continues to serve in the Division of Outpatient Psychiatry and the Division of Child and Family Psychiatry.