Honoring the achievements of AMWA members, past and present
The assemblage of this pantheon of women leaders in medicine demonstrates a wide variety of experiences and expertise with one uniting theme: the unwavering commitment to make a difference for women, be they physicians or patients.
Farzanna Sherene Haffizulla, MD FACP FAMWA
Medical School: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Specialty: Internal Medicine
Career Highlights:
- Awarded “Leading Physician of the World” by the International Association of Healthcare Professionals and she was also selected as an “Outstanding Woman in Healthcare.” The IWLA also recognized Dr. Haffizulla as a “Woman of Outstanding Leadership” in May 2014.
- Author of 2 books, Lead With Your Heart: A Doctor’s Rx for Personal & Professional Success and Harmony of the Spheres: Career, Family and Community – a Working Mom’s Lessons of Love, Strength and Balance
- Awarded a “Quality First Award” by the Florida Health Care Coalition
- Founder and owner of HousecallsMD aka JFDOC PL, a concierge, hybrid medical practice combining office visits, housecalls and telemedicine
- Founder of AMWA’s Preventive Medicine Task Force, Fellowship program and Affiliate Program
- Nationally recognized expert and speaker on work/life balance and empowering women to lead and live with passion and true fulfillment
- Host, Anchor, Medical Correspondent of the nationwide public health program: Mission Critical Health
- National Speaker, Thought Leader and Activist for Women.
- Assistant Dean of Community and Global Health at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Allopathic Medicine
Service with AMWA: 2014-2015 National President of AMWA; Founder and chair of the Preventive Medicine Task Force; Founder and co-chair of AMWA’s Fellowship program; past co-chair of Public Relations; past member of Governance, Membership, Finance; Past executive co-chair of fundraising; past President/Founding Officer, AMWA South Florida Branch. AMWA lifetime member.
Quote: With humility, drive, passion and a positive outlook, you can yoke and harness your own inner strength as a parent and as a working professional, achieving all your life goals.
Farzanna Sherene Haffizulla, MD FACP is the 2014-2015 national President of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) and served as the South Florida AMWA branch President and one of its founding officers. She graduated summa cum laude and with University Honors in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from the University of Central Florida. She completed medical school at The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Her residency training was at the Cleveland Clinic Florida and at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio and she is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. As national President of the American Medical Woman’s Association, she leads the organization into its centennial year. Her leadership vision is to build strong community, national and global networking by encouraging positive strides in healthcare, leadership, scholarship and academia and improving the synergy among health care and professional organizations. Under her leadership and vision, the formation of an affiliate program for AMWA was created. She continues to speak nationally on improving cohesion and communication among health care organizations and physicians. She is involved on many levels with AMWA including being the chair and founder of AMWA’s Preventive Medicine Task Force, founder of AMWA’s fellowship program and she served as the executive chair of the fundraising committee. Dr. Haffizulla is the Assistant Dean of Community and Global Health at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Allopathic Medicine. Dr. Haffizulla joined the College of Allopathic Medicine in 2017. She provides essential leadership to the college’s faculty and staff to ensure the expansion, maintenance, and sustainability of community-engaged initiatives that promote human health and health education both domestically and abroad. These efforts will improve partnership and community engaged capacity building, as aligned with the institution’s mission and strategic plan.
Dr. Haffizulla is the on-camera show host, anchor and medical correspondent for the nationwide health program, Mission Critical Health. Dr. Haffizulla works with Elsevier’s Practice Update team as host of their Oncology series. As host, she has contributed to the production of more than 125 clinician-directed videos to facilitate the translation of the most updated scientific advances and research into improved patient outcomes nationally and globally. She currently teaches Honors Organic Chemistry to the pre-med seniors at American Heritage School and she is an Affiliate Clinical Assistant Professor of Biomedical Science at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University and a Voluntary Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami. She is also a primary scientific board member for Shulman Institutional Review Board. She was chosen as a National Delegate, representing Florida for Drexel’s Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership’s Vision 2020 program. She also serves as a Physician Ambassador for Broward County’s Department of Health promoting prevention of disease and as Medical Director of Haven Home Health in Broward County. Dr. Haffizulla has been invited as a thought leader to sessions at the National Institute of Health and the Office of Women’s Health as she continues to promote national health, wellness and disease prevention. As Chief Scientific Officer of Haven Home Health, her goal is to improve patient care with reduction of disease-related complications and hospital (re)admissions. She leads Haven’s “Walk With a Doc” chapter in Plantation, Florida.
Dr. Haffizulla has earned several awards including a Quality First Award from the Florida Heath Care Coalition, a “Leading Physician Of The World Award” from The International Association of Healthcare Professionals and she was also selected as an “Outstanding Woman in Healthcare” by the International Women’s Leadership Association (IWLA). The IWLA also recognized her as a “Woman of Outstanding Leadership” in May 2014. In the Winter edition 2014, she was featured in “Practice Link” highlighting her medical practice and work/life balance techniques. Dr. Haffizulla was also featured in the American College of Physicians “My Kind of Medicine” series in September 2014 shortly after receiving the Florida Chapter of the ACP’s 2014 award for Volunteerism and Community Service. Dr. Haffizulla also received AMWA’s Presidential Recognition award for her outstanding work and leadership in support of women in medicine, science, and research. In 2017, Dr. Haffizulla was chosen to receive AMWA’s prestigious “Bertha Van Hoosen” award, the namesake award of AMWA’s founder. Her empowering attitude and inspiration continue to embrace the professional community through her numerous national keynote speeches and lectures.
Dr. Haffizulla is a nationally recognized speaker and expert on work/life balance and published “Harmony of the Spheres: Career, Family and Community” in 2011. She also founded and runs a work/life balance site www.BusyMomMD.com. She authored and nationally published several articles to parenting and professional communities and in July 2014 published her second book: “Lead with your Heart: A Doctor’s Rx for Personal and Professional Success.” She founded and opened her own concierge, Internal Medicine hybrid private practice in 2008 after practicing in a traditional setting for 5 years. Her innovative, creative approach to medical practice allows her to efficiently fuse traditional clinical practice with technology. Her medical practice allows her to offer office visits, house calls and telemedicine to her patients. She describes her unique private practice on her personalized website: www.HousecallsMD.us. Dr. Haffizulla lives in South Florida with her husband Dr. Jason Haffizulla and their four children.
Bertha Van Hoosen, MD
Medical School: University of Michigan Medical School, 1888
Specialty: Obstetrics & Gynecology
Career Highlights:
- Professor of Clinical Gynecology, Illinois University Medical School 1902-1912
- Head of the Gynecological Staff, Cook County Hospital, Chicago, IL (Appointed 1913)
- Head of Obstetrics at Loyola University Medical School (Appointed 1918)
Service with AMWA: Founding President Medical Opportunities for Women Chairman
Quote: Often, when asked why I selected medicine as a career, I have been tempted to reply, “It was a peacock hat and ermine coat that first attracted me to the medical profession.”
Biography:
Born in 1863, Bertha Van Hoosen, MD spent her early years on her parents’ farm in Stony Creek, Michigan. Upon graduating high school in 1880, she enrolled in the University of Michigan where she met two women who had decided to study medicine. Their enthusiasm inspired her to follow in their footsteps. Despite her parents’ refusal to finance her education, she enrolled in Michigan’s medical department after receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1884. Four years later, she graduated with her doctor of medicine degree.
Upon completion of her residency at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, Dr. Van Hoosen opened a private clinic in Chicago. At the same time, she accepted a clinical assistantship in gynecology at the Columbia Dispensary in Chicago. As her medical expertise grew, Dr. Van Hoosen’s private practice also flourished, and she found herself in great demand as a teacher. In 1902, though her appointment was opposed by the male faculty, she was made a professor of clinical gynecology at the Illinois University Medical School. In 1913, Dr. Van Hoosen was appointed head of the gynecological staff at the Cook County Hospital, thus becoming one of the first women in the U.S. to receive a civil service appointment. In 1918, she was awarded a prestigious post as head of obstetrics at Loyola University Medical School, making her the first woman to head a medical division at a coeducational university.
Throughout her career, Dr. Van Hoosen devoted herself to the treatment of women and children. She pioneered the use of scopolamine-morphine anesthesia during childbirth, which renders patients unconscious without inhibiting their reflexes. Dr. Van Hoosen delivered thousands of healthy babies and published a book and several articles detailing her research.
An outspoken feminist, Dr. Van Hoosen grew increasingly vocal over the medical establishment’s discriminatory treatment of women. Barred from membership in the Chicago Gynecological and Obstetrical Society, and discouraged by her isolation within the American Medical Association, she called for a meeting of medical women in Chicago. Their meeting led to the formation of American Medical Women’s Association in 1915, with Van Hoosen as the first president.
Abridged from: National Library of Medicine Web site, “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians: Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen” accessed April 9, 2012.
Dr. Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead
Medical School: Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1888
Specialty: Public Health, Obstetrics & Gynecology
Career Highlights:
- Author, A History of Women in Medicine, from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century (Haddam 1938)
- Author, A Short History of the Pioneer Medical Women of America (Froben 1933)
- Medical Director, Bryn Mawr School for Girls in Baltimore
- President, Haddam Public Health Association
Service with AMWA: President, 1923-1924 History of Medicine Chairman, North Atlantic Regional Director, President Branch 9 (Connecticut)
Biography:
Dr. Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead was a health care pioneer and an advocate for women in the medical profession. She was born in Danville, Quebec, in 1867 and grew up in Newburyport, Massachusetts. She decided to study medicine out of respect for her father and on the advice of the well-respected woman physician, Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi. In 1885, she entered the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, receiving her M.D. in 1888. After internship at Boston’s New England Hospital for Women and Children under the tutelage of Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, she eventually become medical director at the Bryn Mawr School for Girls in Baltimore.
At the Bryn Mawr School for Girls, Dr. Hurd-Mead oversaw the school’s trailblazing preventive health program, which included physical education and periodic examinations. Working with Dr. Alice Hall, she helped establish the Evening Dispensary for Working Women and Girls in 1891. In 1893 she married William Edward Mead and the couple moved to Middletown, Connecticut. Setting up a private practice, Dr. Hurd-Mead also helped incorporate Middlesex County Hospital and helped found several nurses’ training programs.
She became increasingly interested in the social role of medicine. A lifelong volunteer in many service organizations, she continued to publish articles advocating a full range of public health services for women and children. After several years in private practice, she spent three years studying gynecology and pediatrics in Vienna, returning in 1907 to be a consulting gynecologist at Middlesex County Hospital.
Dr. Hurd-Mead retired in 1925 and dedicated herself to documenting the history of women in medicine. Planning to compile all her research in a multi-volume set, Dr. Hurd-Mead only lived to see publication of her first volume, covering the history of women in medicine up to the nineteenth century. She had completed the manuscript for the second volume, the history of women in medicine in the Eastern Hemisphere, by the time of her death in 1941.
Dr. Hurd-Mead devoted much of her life’s work to ensuring that medical advances benefited as many people as possible, and to ensuring that the role of women physicians in achieving that goal was well documented and preserved.
Abridged from: National Library of Medicine Web site, “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians: Dr. Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead” accessed April 9, 2012. Other sources: JAMWA April 1956, June 1956 “Kate Campbell Hurd Mead, MD”
Leah J. Dickstein, MD
Medical School: University of Louisville School of Medicine
Specialty: Psychiatry
Career Highlights:
- Vice-President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA)
- Associate Dean for Student Affairs, University of Louisville
- Associate Dean for Faculty and Student Advocacy, University of Louisville
- President, Association of Women Psychiatrists (AWP)
- AAMC National Chair of the Group on Student Affairs
Service with AMWA: President 1992-1993, Senior Advisor to Residency Division of National AMWA
Quote: Of paramount importance, we as women physicians must first know ourselves honestly. We must recognize life’s different stages and that goals may and should change with time. Don’t make life choices that will result in life regrets. Being a wife, mother, and physician have all been extraordinary experiences. I would not have wanted to miss any.
Biography:
Psychiatrist Leah J. Dickstein is a former president of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) and former vice-president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Dr. Dickstein created the innovative Health Awareness Workshop Program at the University of Louisville based on her experience attending medical school while raising a family. The popular program, which covers everything from individual well-being to personal relationships, as well as race and gender issues, has made the University of Louisville one of the nation’s most family-friendly medical colleges.
In 1966, six years after working as a sixth-grade teacher in Brooklyn to support her medical student husband, Herbert, Leah Dickstein entered medical school herself. One of only six women in her class, she had to balance academic responsibilities with the demands of raising three sons. She was clear about her priorities and chose to save Saturdays and summers for family activities, rather than graduate at the top of her class. Her husband, a pathologist, helped keep her close to her sons, even bringing them to visit her while she was on call during residency.
In 1981 when the innovative Health Awareness Workshop Program at the University of Louisville was eliminated, Dr. Dickstein moved this service to the Health Sciences Center and continued to treat medical students, residents and graduate students. At this time, she became Associate Dean for Student Affairs. The Health Awareness Workshop Program addressed everything from study skills and time-management to exercise, nutrition, community resources and mentoring. The message was that students must take care of their own physical and mental health before they can learn to take care of others. As director, Dr. Dickstein helped teach medical students and their partners how to cope with the demands of medical school. Following this, Dr. Dickstein became Associate Dean for Faculty and Student Advocacy in 1989. In this position, she developed protective programs for junior faculty, a regional program for women faculty from Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Indiana and many novel proactive support programs for medical students. After a long and wonderful career enriching the lives of others, Dr. Dickstein retired in 2002. She continues to mentor medical students and serves as a faculty advisor to residents of Tufts Psychiatry Program. Many scholarships and awards have been created in her honor.
Anne Louise Barlow Ramsay, MD, MPH
Medical School: London University (London School of Medicine for Women)
Specialty: Child Health, Public Health, Research Administration
Career Highlights:
- Divisional Vice-President, Medical Affairs, Hospital Products Division, Abbott Laboratories, 1985
Service with AMWA: AMWA President 1983-1984 Vice-President, Treasurer, Chair AWHS, Committee Chair (Lectures), Councilor of Organization and Management, Chair AMWA Foundation, Vice-President of North America – MWIA, President Pan-American Medical Women’s Association, Chairperson of the Professional Resources Committee
Biography:
Born in Yorkshire, England of Scottish parents, both doctors, Anne studied in London during the WWII years. She washed a great many dishes for the British Red Cross, the YMCA and the American Red Cross. She was also an Air Raid Warden for the Paddington District. After graduation, she went to Toronto as a Rotary Foundation Scholar. She later moved to the United States, and in 1963, she joined Abbott Laboratories as a Medical Writer. Over the next years, while clambering up the corporate ladder (to Vice-President, Medical Affairs for the Hospital Products Division) she undertook a host of activities. She ran the Well Baby Clinics for Lake County, Illinois, served on the High School and Special Education Boards, was President of the Tuberculosis Board, was a village Health Officer, President of the County Board of Health and raised two children.
Moving to Pennsylvania in 1984, she started her own consulting company (closed in 2003). As far as organized medicine is concerned, in Pennsylvania she was a county delegate and served on the Pharmaceutical Committee. In Florida (from 1989) she was Nassau County Delegate and President of that county association. With the AMA, she worked with the Senior Physicians Group and served as the chair of, first, the Advisory Committee and then of the Governing Board as that group developed. She retired from the Senior Physicians Group in 2004 after about fifteen years of service.
Anne worked many years with AMWA, and was President in 1983. From 1984 she was Chair of the American Women’s Hospitals Service Committee, the charitable arm of AMWA. She resigned after fifteen years and was called back in 2004 as Chair again, a position dear to her heart. Now in Florida, she continues to serve the community, first as a Board member and then Board President of Sutton Place the local non-profit behavioral Health entity, and in 2005, she helped the start-up of a free clinic in her town and is on the newly formed Advisory Council. A long-time equestrienne, Anne runs a sport-horse breeding farm with her daughter. They are now campaigning a promising young stallion. (At 86, Anne does not ride the young stallion.)
Elinor Todd Christiansen, MD
Medical School: Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Specialty: General Practice
Career Highlights:
- Medical Director, University of Denver Student Health Service
- Medical Director and primary care physician of two small clinics
Service with AMWA: President 2002-2003, Region VIII Director, Chair of Archives, Chair of Awards, Chair of Ethics, Chair of Nominating, Chair of Finance, Co-Chair of Universal Health Care, VP Finance, Chair of Bylaws, Chair of Governance, President Branch 47, multiple other committees
Quote: Health care is a human need and human right. “Everybody In, Nobody Out.”
Biography:
Dr. Elinor Todd Christiansen was born in Peking, China and graduated from Palo Alto High School (1947) and Pomona College (1951). She earned her MD in 1955 from Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A 12-month rotating internship at White Cross Hospital in Columbus, Ohio prepared her for full time responsibilities as GP in private practice. Customary office fees in Ohio in 1956 were $3 per office visit, whether 20 minutes or an hour, and $5 per house call, regardless of mileage. The nearest hospital in Newark, Ohio had no house staff or technicians, so as admitting physician she “did it all,” including IV’s, catheters, delivering babies, and assisting the surgeon if her patient needed surgery. Living in the apartment over the office was a big mistake, as patients could find her 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In 1952, Elinor married Robert M. Christiansen, a chemical engineer who earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering at University of Pennsylvania while Elinor was earning her MD. They had two sons and a daughter: son Eric became a physician, graduating from Medical College of Pennsylvania and marrying a medical school classmate; son Dana became a mechanical engineer with global engineering experience; daughter Lois became a PhD Clinical Psychologist, marrying a farmer and working as a school psychologist (K-12). There are eight grandchildren, six boys and two girls. The three oldest grandsons studied engineering, one of whom is now a medical student at Elinor’s alma mater.
After her first retirement in 1985, Elinor wrote the biography of her mother, Lois Pendleton Todd, M.D., “Woman Surgeon of China.” Several educational trips to countries with single payer universal health care followed as Elinor was eager to learn the various ways different countries fund, govern, and deliver universal health care. After her second retirement in 1992, she founded Health Care for All Colorado, a nonprofit organization with the goal of achieving single payer universal health care for all residents of Colorado, under a model which includes a single risk pool, comprehensive benefit plan, standardized fees, and efficient reimbursement to providers for services delivered.
Her hobbies include gardening, hiking (she has climbed six 14,000 ft peaks in Colorado), singing in church choir, and classical music.
Linda Hawes Clever, MD, MACP
Medical School: Stanford University, School of Medicine
Specialty: Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Community Medicine, Occupational Medicine
Career Highlights:
- Member, Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences
- Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
- President, RENEW
- Associate Dean for Alumni Affairs, Stanford University School of Medicine
Service with AMWA: Keynote address at two annual meetings; awarded Elizabeth Blackwell Medal
Quote: It isn’t selfish to take care of yourself. It is self-preservation, so you can do what you need to do or want to do.
Biography:
Linda Hawes Clever, MD, MACP is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF, Associate Dean for Alumni Affairs at the Stanford University School of Medicine, founding Chair of the Department of Occupational Health at California Pacific Medical Center, and former Editor of the Western Journal of Medicine. She is also founding President of RENEW, a not-for-profit aimed at helping devoted people maintain (and regain) their enthusiasm, effectiveness and purpose, and author of The Fatigue Prescription, Four Steps to Renewing Your Energy, Health and Life.
Dr. Clever received undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University and had several years of medical residency and fellowships at Stanford and UCSF in internal medicine, infectious diseases, community medicine and occupational medicine. Dr. Clever was the first Medical Director of the teaching clinic at St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco where she started patient education and nurse practitioner training and research programs. She started the Department of Occupational Health at the then-Pacific Medical Center and began her activities in the American College of Physicians in which she served as Governor, Chair of the Board of Governors, and Regent. She has written numerous papers, chapters, articles, and editorials. Her areas of special interest include personal and organizational renewal; the interactions of life, work and health; the occupational health of women and health care workers and leadership.
In 2010, Dr. Clever was given the American Medical Women’s Association’s Elizabeth Blackwell Medal which is granted to a woman physician who has made the most outstanding contributions to the cause of women in the field of medicine. She also received the Stanford Medal which honors volunteer leaders who have given extraordinary, distinguished and significant service to Stanford University.
Her husband, Jamie, is also an internist, as is their daughter Sarah, who is on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Clever is a dedicated walker and enjoys good company, good conversation and good cookies.
Debra Ruth Judelson, MD
Medical School: Harvard Medical School – Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Specialty: Cardiology, Internal Medicine
Career Highlights:
- Creator, Chair, main speaker: American Medical Women’s Association Education Project: Coronary Heart Disease in Women, 1995-2005
- Local Legend (NIH, National Library of Medicine, NIH Office of Women’s Health Research, and AMWA), 2005
- Healthcare Excellence, Wenger Award – National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease (womenheart.org) 2000
- Elizabeth Blackwell Award, AMWA, 2007
Service with AMWA: AMWA President 1996-1997 AMWA Website Creator and Chair; AMWA Program Chair, Chair Cardiovascular Disease, Women’s Health Committee, Program Committee
Quote: Don’t run with the crowd, find your own path and claim it. After a while, learn to be graceful in letting others lead new ways. This is progress as well as an opportunity to relax and recharge yourself.
Biography:
Raised in Patchogue, NY, I went to college at MIT, majored in Metallurgy and Materials Science Engineering, won a national student award, and entered medical school thinking I would go into orthopedics. I found cardiology more to my liking, and ending up in Southern California, I joined Cardiovascular Medical Group of Southern California, married my college sweetheart and raised two daughters.
The most important events in my career started when AMWA gave me the opportunity to promote my passion, heart disease in women. As one of the few female cardiologists of my generation, I often spoke at AMWA meetings on heart disease in women, especially in the 1980s and early 1990s. An audience member offered to sponsor me with a major grant to develop a program which I wanted to use to train primary care physicians about risk factors, symptoms and diagnostic testing for coronary heart disease in women.
I brought this grant to AMWA after the American College of Cardiology declined, stating ‘at this time, heart disease in women does not merit the focused attention such a program would bring’. I worked with AMWA members and experts to develop a ‘train the trainer program’ to raise awareness in primary care physicians about heart disease in women in the early 1990’s, training 30 physicians as part of our Master Faculty, to share our CME curriculum all over the country starting in 1995. I also helped develop a Gallop Survey that found that “4 out of 5 American women did not know that heart disease in women was their number one cause of death, and 1 out of 3 primary care physicians didn’t know this either.” The Gallop Survey triggered a media frenzy, sending me all over the country, on radio and TV (including Oprah) to speak on heart disease in women. As a result of the attention, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology started their “Guidelines for Cardiovascular Disease in Women” including me as an author representing AMWA, for the original and all subsequent publications. The media attention, our curriculum and the Master Faculty members’ devotion STARTED the awareness all over the country about heart disease in women, and trained over 17,000 primary care physicians.
I am proud to have been able to work with AMWA to create a project that forever changed the way physicians and women view our risk of cardiovascular disease.
Elise Strang L’Esperance, MD
Medical School: Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary, 1900
Specialty: Pediatrics, Pathology, Oncology
Career Highlights:
- Professor of Preventive Medicine, Cornell University Medical College, 1950
- Co-Founder, Kate Depew Strang Tumor Clinic and Kate Depew Strang Cancer Prevention Clinic
- Fellow, New York Academy of Sciences
Service with AMWA: President 1948-1949; First Editor of JAMWA 1946; Chairman, Opportunities for Medical Women
Quote: I’ve been living medicine all my life.
Biography:
Dr. Elise Strang L’Esperance graduated from the Women’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary in 1900. She was one of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell’s first students. Over the course of her career, Dr. L’Esperance worked initially in pediatrics and later served on the Tuberculosis Research Commission in the Research Laboratories of the New York City Department of Health. In 1910, she began pursuing pathology under the guidance of Professor James Ewing. Within ten years, she became the first woman to achieve assistant professorship at Cornell University Medical College, a position that she held until 1932. Her chief interest centered on malignancies and early detection. In 1932, she and her sister founded the Kate Depew Strang Tumor Clinic, in memory of their mother who died of cancer. Dr. L’Esperance became the director of this highly esteemed facility. The Kate Depew Strang Cancer Prevention Clinic was later founded in 1937 and a similar center at Memorial Hospital in 1940. In recognition of her contributions to preventive medicine, she was appointed assistant professor of preventive medicine at Cornell University Medical College in 1942 and full professor in 1950.
Dr. L’Esperance was the recipient of multiple awards, including AMWA’s Friendship Award for eminent achievement (1946), the Medallion of Honor of the Women’s International Exposition (1947), the Blackwell Centennial Citation from Hobart College (1949), the Blackwell Centennial Citation from the New York Infirmary (1950), and the Albert Lasker Award of the American Public Health Association (1951) in recognition of the “eternal inscription written by her inspired application of preventive medicine to cancer control.” She received honorary degrees from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (Doctor of Science, 1950) and from Lindenwood College (Doctor of Law, 1951). In 1950, she was elected a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Dr. L’Esperance was also a prolific writer. She was the first editor of the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association (JAMWA) and became president of AMWA in 1948. Her hobby was breeding and showing horses and she became a notable exhibitor. Dr. L’Esperance passed away at the age of 80 after a long and distinguished career in medicine and a legacy that would forever impact cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Abridged from JAMWA Vol 14, No 5, May 1959. “Elise Strang L’Esperance, M.D.” Other references: TIME, Monday April 3, 1950. “Medicine: Prevention Is Her Aim”
Lynn C. Epstein, MD, DLFAPA, FAACAP
Medical School: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Specialty: Psychiatry
Career Highlights:
- Career — Associate Dean of Medicine (Student Development), Senior Associate Dean (Women in Medicine), Professor in the Departments of Community Health and Psychiatry, Adjunct Professor of English, Brown University and Medical School, Professor Emerita
- Dean, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
- Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts Medical Center
Service with AMWA: AMWA President 2003-2004 AMWA Vice President of Career Development, National Director of Students, Founder of the Nancy D. Binder, MD, PhD, Care for the Caregiver, Memorial Lecture
Quote: The only one you can ever speak for is yourself.
Biography:
Lynn Epstein began her medical education after 2 years of college in a special 5 year program at Johns Hopkins, from which she earned both undergraduate and medical degrees. She credits Johns Hopkins for setting the stage for out-of-the-box thinking and attention to the greater good. Honored with a Henry Strong Dennison Award for Medical Research at graduation, Dr. Epstein did a medical internship in the Public Health Service, residencies in adult and child psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, and then joined the clinical faculty.
A hallmark feature of her career has been attention to the big picture, resulting in new, creative initiatives and programs to expand opportunities for others. At Brown, she established an Office of Women in Medicine and obtained two endowed yearly lectureships: The Harriet W. Sheridan Literature and Medicine Lectureship and the Stanley D. Simon Lectureship, both of which have continued. In 1991, she initiated the Association for Women Psychiatrists’ Leah J. Dickstein, MD Student Creativity and Leadership award. In 1996, she served as their President. After Dr. Nancy Binder’s tragic suicide, Dr. Epstein helped create the Nancy D. Binder, “Care for the Caregiver” Memorial Lecture at AMWA in 2000.
She has played leadership roles in numerous organizations aiming to expand opportunities for individuals and groups. In the Association of American Medical Colleges, she initiated a multi-institutional evaluation project on combined baccalaureate-medical degree programs and was elected Chair of their National Group. She has served in the Council of Academic Societies, with several terms on their leadership boards. She is a founding member of the American Medical Association’s Commission to Eliminate Disparities in Healthcare. After being nominated by Brown, Dr Epstein was selected as one of two physicians for a one-year, American Council on Education Fellowship.
In 2003, Dr. Epstein received the Women in Medicine Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges and in 2005 she was elected a Distinguished Life Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association.
Currently, Dr Epstein is Professor Emerita from Brown and Clinical Professor at Tufts where she is teaching, completing a research grant, and running a large New England Support Group. She continues to write and do organizational work.
Omega C. Logan Silva, MD, MACP, FAMWA
Medical School: Howard University College of Medicine
Specialty: Internal Medicine, Endocrinology
Career Highlights:
- Professor Emeritus of Medicine, George Washington University, Master of the American College of Physicians
- President of the Howard University Medical Alumni Association (first woman)
- Clinical Investigator of the Department of Veterans Affairs (first African American)
Service with AMWA: President 2000-2002 Vice President of Program, Regional Governor III, State Director for DC, Chair of Governmental Affairs, Chair of the Anti-Smoking Task Force, Co-Chair of the Leadership Development Committee, President and Vice President AMWA Branch 1
Quote: Never take responsibility without power and authority as well.
Biography:
Dr. Silva is an advocate for health care and a committed supporter of the advancement of women in medicine. In 2008, she received the Bertha Van Hoosen Award for exceptional leadership and service to AMWA. She has served on six separate advisory groups for the National Institutes of Health and was a consultant to the Food and Drug Administration’s Immunology Section. Dr. Silva has also served on the board of directors for the National Association of Veterans Affairs Physicians, the Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine, the National Research Center for Women and Families, and the National Capitol Health Care Council.
Dr. Silva, the first African American woman to be awarded a Research Associateship in the Department of Veteran Affairs, was the lead author of the first description of calcitonin production from human small cell cancer of the lung. She received a Letter of Commendation from President Reagan in 1984 and in 1995 a Letter of Thanks from President Clinton for participation in health care reform. She is also listed in American Men and Women of Science, Who’s Who in Black America, Who’s Who in Professional and Executive Women, Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare, Who’s Who in the East, and Who’s Who in America
Dr. Silva has made numerous media appearances to raise awareness of women’s health issues including smoking, cervical cancer, and thyroid disease and has been an editorial referee for Chest, Archives of Internal Medicine and The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics.
Dr. Silva graduated cum laude with honors in chemistry from Howard University in 1958 and then worked as a chemist at the National Institutes of Health. After earning her MD in 1967, Dr. Silva completed a residency in internal medicine at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Washington, D.C. and a fellowship in endocrinology at George Washington University. Dr. Silva was assistant chief of the Metabolic Section and chief of the Diabetic Clinic at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and is a member of the AOA Honor Medical Society. She was given the Foremother Award of the National Research Center for Women and Families in May 2010.
Neelum T. Aggarwal, MD
Medical School: Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School
Specialty: Neurology
Career Highlights:
- Co-Leader Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center Clinical Core
- Associate Professor, Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush University Medical Center
- Steering Committee Member- Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study Group
- Palatucci Advocacy Forum Leadership Award – American Academy of Neurology 2010
Service with AMWA: Member – Board of Directors, Co-Chair Program Committee, Coordinator – AMWA Mentoring Breakfast 2012
Quote: When conducting health care research in the community, my philosophy is “What you see depends on where you sit.”
Biography:
Dr. Neelum T. Aggarwal is a clinical-researcher, author and expert in the field of longevity, aging and Alzheimer’s disease. She is Co- Leader of the federally funded (NIA) Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center Clinical Core in Chicago and an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurological Sciences at Rush University Medical Center. She obtained her medical degree from the Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School, completed her Neurology Residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan and Aging followed by a Neurodegenerative Disorders Fellowship at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago. Because of her expertise in minority health and wellness issues, recruitment and retention of minorities in observational, clinical drug studies and brain autopsy studies, she was elected to represent Rush on the NIA Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study Group (ADCS) Steering Committee.
Dr. Aggarwal is asked regularly to provide commentary on her own research and articles of interest as they pertain to longevity, aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Her work has been featured on the local television networks in Chicago. She is a contributing editor to Medpedia- the online worldwide platform that seeks to advance knowledge about health and medicine, a frequent guest blogger on Alzheimer’s disease, women’s health and minority health for organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study group (www.adcs.org), Advancing Women’s Health Collaborative project (www.advancingwomenshealth.org), the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org) and the Canadian US Business Council of Chicago (www.canadianclubofchicago.org).
Dr. Aggarwal is also a member of the American Academy of Neurology, a Councilor for the Women Section of the Academy of Neurology and a Board Member of the American Medical Woman’s Association. She was Co-Chair of the 2011 AMWA Annual meeting and is Coordinator of the AMWA Mentoring Breakfast to be held at the 2012 AMWA Annual Meeting in Miami.
Emily D. Barringer, MD
Medical School: Cornell University Weill Medical College, 1901
Specialty: Obstetrics & Gynecology
Career Highlights:
- First woman medical resident and first woman ambulance physician at New York City’s Gouverneur Hospital
- Chaired a special AMWA committee that successfully lobbied Congress to allow women physicians to be commissioned as officers in the armed forces
- Decorated for her war services by the King of Serbia
- Fellow, American College of Surgeons and New York Academy of Medicine
Service with AMWA: President 1941-1942; Vice-Chair, American Women’s Hospitals War Service Committee; president, Women’s Medical Association of New York City; president, Women’s Medical Society of New York State
Quote: “The woman physician during each mile of her long and plodding pilgrimage has had to prove that she has a right to be there.”
Biography:
Emily Dunning Barringer was born in Scarsdale, New York. Knowing the value of education, her mother encouraged her to attend college. Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi recommended Cornell University’s medical preparatory course, and so Emily attended, with the financial support of extended family members. Graduating in 1897, she chose to attend the College of Medicine of the New York Infirmary, which merged with the new Cornell University School of Medicine during her sophomore year. Although she earned the second highest grade in the qualifying exam for an internship at Gouverneur Hospital in New York City, her application was denied by the hospital. After enlisting support from political and religious figures the following year, she was accepted, thus becoming the first woman ever accepted for post-graduate surgical training in service to a hospital. These early years are documented in her autobiography, From Bowery to Bellevue.
Emily Dunning married fellow student, Benjamin Barringer in 1904. The couple had a son and a daughter. She was on the gynecological staff at New York Polyclinic Hospital and also an attending surgeon at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, where she specialized in the study of venereal diseases. During World War I, Dr. Barringer was vice-chair of the American Women’s Hospitals War Service Committee of the National Medical Women’s Association (later AMWA). She spearheaded a campaign to raise money for the purchase of ambulances to be sent to Europe. After World War I, she became an attending surgeon at Brooklyn’s Kingston Avenue Hospital and subsequently its director of gynecology. She was a member of the American Medical Association and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and of the New York Academy of Medicine. In 1941, Dr. Barringer was elected president of AMWA and fought for women’s right to hold appointments in the Army and Navy Medical Corps during World War II. While women could serve as contract surgeons in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, they did not receive the accompanying military benefits available to men who were commissioned officers. Dr. Barringer chaired a special AMWA committee that lobbied Congress for military commissions for women physicians, and in April 1943, the Sparkman Act was signed into law.
Adapted from: National Library of Medicine Web site, Web page titled “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians: Dr. Emily Dunning Barringer” accessed April 9, 2012.
Additional sources: Wikipedia, Web pages titled “John Sparkman” and “Emily Barringer” accessed April 9, 2012.
Claudia S. Morrissey, MD, MPH
Medical School: The Chicago Medical School
Specialty: Internal Medicine & International Public Health
Career Highlights:
- Senior Director, Save the Children, US
- Department of Gender, Women and Health, World Health Organization
- Senior Technical Advisor, Division of Nutrition and Maternal Health, United States Agency for International Development
- Assistant Dean at the College of Medicine and Deputy Director of the Center for Research on Women and Gender, University of Illinois
Service with AMWA: President 2008-2009 Medical Women’s International Association, Vice President for North America (2010-2013)
Quote: My international public health career has taken me across the globe and I’ve had the privilege of working with women from all regions, religions, ethnicities and economic circumstances. I have seen firsthand how gender discrimination continues to disadvantage, degrade, and discourage women and girls. These experiences have also allowed me to witness the resilience, strength, and incredible commitment that women make to their children, families, and communities even under the most difficult circumstances. The admiration I feel for the often unheralded accomplishments of women, heightens my awareness of the huge untapped potential represented by women around the world, and reinforces my resolve to work for gender equity.
Biography:
Claudia S. Morrissey, MD, MPH, is a Senior Director at Save the Children, US. She heads up the Technical Leadership and Support unit for the Gates-funded Saving Newborn Lives project.
Before joining SAVE, Dr. Morrissey worked at the World Health Organization in the Department of Gender, Women and Health. She has also held positions at the United States Agency for International Development (Senior Technical Advisor within the Division of Nutrition and Maternal Health), John Snow Incorporated (Senior Technical Advisor for an integrated family health project in Bangladesh and Deputy Director of the JSI Center for Women’s Health), and the University of Illinois (faculty member at the School of Public Health, Assistant Dean at the College of Medicine, and Deputy Director of the Center for Research on Women and Gender).
Prior to receiving her MD degree and board certification in Internal Medicine and practicing primary care medicine, Dr. Morrissey trained and worked as a community organizer in poor communities in both the US and in Mexico. She earned her MPH in health policy and management from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Morrissey’s life work has centered on increasing gender equity and improving women’s health and well-being both domestically and internationally. Her technical foci include maternal mortality and morbidity reduction, female genital mutilation eradication, breastfeeding promotion, and saving the lives of newborns in the developing world.
Dr. Morrissey is a Past President of the American Medical Women’s Association and is currently the Vice-President for North America for the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA), the global organization for women doctors.
Dr. Morrissey has been active on many boards including AMWA, MWIA, Rape Victim Advocates, the Reproductive Health Initiative, and Raising Women’s Voices Advisory Committee. She has been recognized for numerous awards including: AMWA’s Bertha Van Hoosen Award (2010); the Association of American Medical Colleges Women in Medicine Leadership Development award (2006); the University of Illinois at Chicago Woman of the Year award (2005); Midwest Veteran Feminist Activist award (2004); Soroptimist International Woman of Distinction award (1994) and since 1992, has been a member of Delta Omega Honor Society in Public Health, Johns Hopkins Chapter.
Dr. Morrissey is married to Kevin Conlon, MD, has three children: Erin, Bridget and Liam Conlon, and lives in Washington, DC.
Doris Bartuska, MD, FACP, MACE
Medical School: Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania
Specialty: Internal Medicine; Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism
Career Highlights:
- Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Medical College of Pennsylvania
- Professor Emeritus, Drexel University College of Medicine
- Master, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE)
- President of the Philadelphia County Medical Society
Service with AMWA: President 1987-1988 Chair, Publications Committee; Book Review Editor; Councilor, Organization and Management; First Vice-President; Charter Member, Women’s Leadership Forum; Chair, Awards Committee; Delegate, MWIA
Biography:
Dr. Bartuska is currently Emeritus Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology) at Drexel University School of Medicine. She has been Director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism and the Fellowship Training Program at the Medical College of Pennsylvania (MCP). A consultant in endocrine and rare metabolic disorders, she is the author of numerous publications in the field. Her research focused on the genetic aspects of endocrine disease, endocrinology of aging, osteoporosis and thyroid diseases.
Dr. Bartuska is a graduate of Bucknell University and Woman’s Medical College (WMC) of Pennsylvania, where she also completed a rotating internship and residency in medicine. She then was an NIH trainee in endocrinology at Jefferson Medical College. Dr. Bartuska was Assistant and Associate Dean at WMC and Associate Dean for Curriculum at MCP. In 1966, she was awarded a two-hear Special NIH Fellowship in Molecular Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
She has received numerous awards, including the Strittmatter Award (Philadelphia County Medical Society), membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award (MCP), the Shaffrey Award (St. Joseph’s University), an honorary Doctor of Science (Wilkes University), and an Alumni Achievement Award (Bucknell University). She was named an Outstanding Educator of America and Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania and was inducted into AMWA’s International Women in Medicine Hall of Fame.
Dr. Bartuska has served as President of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the Medical Staff at MCP, the Philadelphia Endocrine Society and AMWA. As AMWA President, she focused on stimulating national interest in a women’s health agenda with particular emphasis on the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, smoking and smoke-related disease. Dr. Bartuska testified on Capitol Hill to increase this awareness and to obtain insurance coverage for Osteoporosis screening. She has been cited in World Who’s Who of American Women and World Who’s Who of Women. Her involvement in medical humanities and ethics led to participation in the President’s Forum on Physicians and Social Responsibility. Dr. Bartuska currently serves as Delegate of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and Chair of the Committee to Nominate Delegates to the American Medical Association.
Dr. Bartuska is an accomplished musician, having studied piano, organ and coloratura voice. She also enjoys polish music and dance. She has 6 children, 9 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild.
Jean L. Fourcroy, MD, PhD, MPH
Medical School: Medical College of Pennsylvania
Specialty: Urology, Endocrinology, Regulatory Issues
Career Highlights:
- Medical Officer with the Food and Drug Administration
- Editor, Pharmacology, Doping and Sports
- Board of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency
- American Urological Association Presidential Citation Award, 1998
Service with AMWA: President 1995-1996 Vice-President, Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) 2004-2007
Biography:
Jean Fourcroy always wanted to be a doctor, but she supported her husband’s career first and waited until her kids were older. By that time, she was 42 years old and the mother of four teenagers. She received her MD from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and her PhD from the University of California at San Francisco. Her surgery and urology residencies were completed at George Washington University Medical Center with Board Certification in Urology in 1981 (only the 5th woman do to so in the United States). In 1999, Dr. Fourcroy received her Masters in Public Health from the Medical College of Wisconsin. As a captain in the U.S. Navy, she served as academic urologist at Bethesda Naval until retirement.
She also served as a Medical Officer with the Food and Drug Administration and was involved with many aspects of the regulatory process within the agency — development of new drugs / devices, issues of supplements, and treatments for urologic cancer. She was a leading expert in the area of drug abuse, particularly anabolic steroids. Currently, Dr. Fourcroy is a regulatory consultant in the areas of urology and endocrinology. Her broad research experience includes insect physiology, developmental and reproductive biology, and occupational safety. She has been appointed to the Board of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and is an active member of the American Urological Association and the American Society of Andrology, and is Past President of the American Medical Women’s Association. Dr. Fourcroy serves on the editorial board of NCI/PDQ Prevention and Screening. She is the recipient of a 1998 American Urological Association Presidential Citation Award, the 1999 Camille Mermod Award from the American Medical Women’s Association, and an Outstanding Service Award from the American Society of Andrology in April 2000. In 2003, she was chosen as one of the honored physicians in the National Library of Medicine exhibit on women physicians that have “changed the face of medicine” and received the American Society of Andrology Presidential Citation in 2004. In 2005, she was made an honorary member of the Delta Omega Pi Public Health Honor Society. She is the editor of a recent book Pharmacology, Doping and Sports.
Satty Gill Keswani, MD, RE
Medical School: Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India
Specialty: Infertility Reproductive Medicine
Career Highlights:
- Clinical instructor, New Jersey Medical College at Newark
- Past President- New Jersey Branch of AMWA UN-NGO-REP MWIA
Service with AMWA: New Jersey Branch of AMWA
Quote: Women doctors come home to a husband, and men come home to a wife. Thus, for women docs to function, we need the 3H’s: 1. Husband-Supportive. 2. Health. 3. Household help.
Biography:
Originally intending a career in surgery, Dr. Satty Keswani arrived in the United States from New Delhi, India, in the late 1950s to find that no surgical residencies were available and that women were not welcome in the field. Instead, she chose obstetrics and gynecology as a specialty and after delivering over 1000 babies became intrigued by the problem of women who were unable to conceive. By 1967, she had found her life’s work and had established a practice specializing in treating infertility. In private practice in Livingston, NJ for over 35 years, Dr. Keswani has successfully treated hundreds of couples for infertility while developing new methods to treat the problem. She has helped pioneer procedures that increase the likelihood of success for artificial insemination and continues to pursue several areas of research in the field of human reproduction, including detecting and evaluating ovulation, and plastic surgery on fallopian tubes. She is a clinical instructor at New Jersey Medical College at Newark and on staff at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.
A strong advocate for women in medicine, Dr. Keswani has served as a non-governmental organization delegate to the United Nations (UN) on population problems, and represents the Medical Women’s International Association at the UN. She is past president of the New Jersey branch of AMWA and remains active in mentoring women in medicine.
Dr. Keswani recalls that the early years were not easy with the demands of a busy practice and a growing family. She’d open the clinic in the morning, leave mid-afternoon to pick up her children, and then reopen in the evening. “I was one of the few women in the field at the time,” she recalls, “but I had good health and a supportive husband.”
In 1986, she was recognized as Woman of the Year in Essex County, New Jersey by the John I. Crecco Foundation. She was also nominated by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ-6) as a Local Legend of Medicine, who wrote in praise of her, “aside from her groundbreaking role in women’s health, she is a beloved mentor and role model to her patients and to junior women physicians.”
She is also a proud grandmother of three.
Lila Stein Kroser, MD
Medical School: Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania
Specialty: Family Practice
Career Highlights:
- Clinical Assistant Professor, Hahnemann School of Medicine
- President, Philadelphia County Medical Society (the third woman in this position)
- President, Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians (the second woman in this position)
Service with AMWA: President 1983-1984, Founder, Friends of the American Medical Women’s Association (1977), President Branch 25 (Philadelphia), Chairman of Finance, Chairman of the Archives Committee, President, Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA), Co-Chair Public Relations and Publicity for MWIA
Quote: I make a difference by wearing multiple hats—physician, wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, mentor, political activitist, and above all, patient advocate.
Biography:
Lila Stein Kroser, MD was at once a solo-practice local family doctor in northeastern Philadelphia and a leader in national and international medicine. She was one of few physicians to have held local, state, national, and international presidencies in organized medicine. Dr. Kroser was past president of both the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA), a nongovernmental branch of the United Nations, and the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA).
Dr. Kroser was a cum laude graduate of Temple University, and graduated from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in 1957, where she was the Lois Mattox Miller fellow in preventive medicine. Dr. Kroser was committed to organized medicine, the empowerment of women physicians, advocacy for women’s health issues, and the importance of good patient-physician relationships. She was the only physician featured in the book America’s New Women Entrepreneurs, and authored “The Growing Influence of Women in Medicine,” a chapter in Future Practice Alternatives published in 1993.
A fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Kroser founded Friends of the American Medical Women’s Association in 1977. In 1999, she was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal, AMWA’s most prestigious honor, given to a female physician who has achieved recognition as a leader in women’s health, influenced the role of women in medicine, and made exceptional contributions to the image and empowerment of women in medicine.
Dr. Lila Stein Kroser also had the distinction of being the third woman in 150 years to become president of the Philadelphia County Medical Society and was the second woman to serve as president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians.
In addition to her private practice, Dr. Kroser was a clinical assistant professor at Hahnemann School of Medicine (Medical College of Pennsylvania). She and her husband, family physician Al Kroser, had three children and were the proud parents of two doctors and a lawyer.
Susan L. Ivey, MD, MHSA
Medical School: St. Georges University School of Medicine
Specialty: Family Medicine (DABFM), Emergency Medicine (DABEM)
Career Highlights:
- Associate Professor, Adjunct, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley
- Director of Research, Health Research for Action, an affiliated research center of University of California, Berkeley
- Associate Professor, UCB-UCSF Joint Medical Program
- Assistant Medical Director, Division of Public Health, City of Berkeley
Service with AMWA: President (2006-2007) Board of Directors, Vice President – Advocacy and Policy, Vice President – Communications, State Director – California
Quote: Successful resuscitation of AMWA
Biography:
Dr. Ivey is Associate Professor, Adjunct, at University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health and Director of Research at Health Research for Action (a UCB affiliated research center). She is a board-certified physician in Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine. Dr. Ivey also received a Master’s in Health Services Management and Policy from George Washington University and received a national research award from NIMH, completing a 2-year post-doctoral research fellowship in Health Policy and Health Services Research at University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Ivey conducts health services research including design and evaluation of health interventions, particularly for low-income populations, recent immigrants, and Asian Americans. Her current research focuses on health and health care disparities, including Medicaid policy issues, health among underserved and immigrant populations, healthy aging, and chronic diseases (diabetes, epilepsy and heart disease) in Asian Americans. She is the author of 35 peer-reviewed publications, and author and editor of <u>Immigrant Women’s Health: Problems and Solutions</u> (Jossey-Bass, 1999) among other book chapters and publications focusing on immigrant health issues.
Dr. Ivey has been a member of the American Medical Women’s Association since 1983, joining during her family medicine residency to network with other women in medicine. AMWA has been an important part of Dr. Ivey’s life and work, with a recent term as president (2006-2007) and many roles in committees and vice-president capacities over the years she has been associated. She currently represents AMWA to the Commission to End Health Care Disparities, a coalition of medical organizations started by the AMA, NMA and NHMA to guide physician leadership in the recognition and elimination of health care differences across diverse populations. This work has led to a number of products including a publication in NEJM about the importance of race-ethnicity data for improvement of care in physician practices, and a white paper on the importance of data about clinical care for the improvement of care for diverse populations in our country. Dr. Ivey is also a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Dr. Ivey is a mother of 3 young adults and is married to Peter Bernhard, a newspaper publisher and owner. She lives in Danville, California, with her family and 2 amazing dogs.
Carolyn A. Webber, MD, FCAP, FACP
Medical School: Howard University College of Medicine
Specialty: Pathology/Cytopathology
Career Highlights:
- Clinical Professor of Pathology Emeritus, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center
- President of the Medical and Dental Staff, Kings County Hospital Center
- Past President, National Council on Women’s Health
Service with AMWA: President 2005-2006 Director of Students, Vice Speaker of the House, Vice-President for Communications, Liaison Subcommittee Chair, Underrepresented Physicians Subcommittee Chair, member of multiple committees
Quote: Did you learn to ride a bike the first time you tried? If not, try to stop smoking again and again.
Biography:
Dr. Carolyn Webber is Clinical Professor of Pathology Emeritus at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center and Attending Physician in Pathology (Cytopathology) at Kings County Hospital Center (KCHC) and University Hospital of Brooklyn (UHB). After graduating from Howard University College of Medicine in 1960, Dr Webber was a resident in Pathology at KCH-UHB where she remained on the faculty for over 40 years, teaching medical students, residents, attending physicians and cytotechnologists. Certified in Anatomic Pathology and Clinical Pathology by the American Board of Pathology, she was among the first pathologists in the United States, and the first at KCHC-UHB, to become certified in the then newly offered Added Qualification in Cytopathology.
Dr. Webber has led efforts to have workplaces and other public places in New York, and people, especially women and girls, become smoke-free. She served two terms as President of the Medical and Dental Staff and as Chair of the Credentials Committee at KCHC. She has served on the Academic Promotions Committee, the Curriculum Committee, as representative for the College of Medicine to the Faculty Student Committee, as Women’s Liaison Officer to the Association of American Medical Colleges, and as faculty advisor for the Downstate Branch of AMWA.
In addition to serving as President of AMWA, Dr. Webber is past President of the National Council on Women’s Health and of the Zonta Club of New Rochelle. She has been honored for her work with medical students by Downstate students, by national AMWA, and by Women’s Medical Association of New York City.
A believer in the role of gardens in morale and healing, Dr. Webber designed, planted and for years tended a demonstration garden at the Institute of Pathology at KCHC, as a gift to the hospital, its patients and the community. Since retiring in 2008, Dr. Webber has earned a certificate in gardening at the New York Botanical Garden and has become a Master Gardener volunteer with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County. She continues to teach medical students.
Dr. Webber has been married for more than 50 years to Gerald E. Thomson, MD, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and former President of the American College of Physicians.
Janice L. Werbinski, MD, FACOG
Medical School: Medical College of Wisconsin
Specialty: Obstetrics-Gynecology
Career Highlights:
- Associate Clinical Professor Emerita, Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine
- Founding President, American College of Women’s Health Physicians
- Medical Director, Borgess Women’s Health, Kalamazoo, Michigan
- Recognition in 2012 Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare
Service with AMWA: Secretary Board of Directors Chair, Women’s Health Working Group
Quote: Follow your passion. Strive to work in an area about which you are passionate, can have fun, and create a feeling of accomplishment. Find time in each day for yourself.
Biography:
Dr. Janice Werbinski has been board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology since 1985. She is the former Medical Director of Borgess Women’s Health, a clinical practice of 25 providers in Kalamazoo, MI, delivering healthcare to thousands of women across their lifespan, from adolescent care, through reproductive care, to menopausal and mature woman care. She is Associate Clinical Professor Emerita in OBGyn at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD College of Human Medicine, and teaches a course there in Sex and Gender Specific Medicine. In 1995, she authored the curriculum for the Women’s Health Track in the MSU Internal Medicine Residency Program, and she has taught the Advanced Women’s Health month to senior residents in that program since 1996. A copy of the description of the curriculum is buried in a time capsule at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, signifying its uniqueness and importance as an early effort to introduce gender specific research into the clinical practice of Women’s Health. She has published several peer-reviewed articles, an iBook, and a book chapter in sex and gender specific health.
In 2008, Dr. Werbinski has served as the Chair of the Women’s Health Working Group of the American Medical Women’s Association, and through that appointment she has been instrumental in the establishment of the Sex and Gender Health Collaborative, a project with the goal of increasing the knowledge base of students, residents, faculty, and all providers who take care of women, translating our wealth of sex- and gender- specific research into the clinical practice of providers who care for women, and ultimately improving the health and well-being of all women.
She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan and enjoys living near her two daughters, their families, and her two granddaughters, Olivia and Audrey. “Strong women: May we know them; May we be them; May we raise them.”
Katherine L. Wisner MD, MS
Medical School: Case Western Reserve University
Specialty: Psychiatry
Career Highlights:
- Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
- Director, Women’s Behavioral HealthCARE program, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC), University Pittsburgh Medical Center
- Immediate Past President, Marce International Society for the Study of Childbearing-Related Psychiatric Illness
- Delegate, Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program for Women
Service with AMWA: AMWA’s Woman in Science Award, 2011
Quote: I’m honored to have contributed to research in perinatal mental health over the last 25 years, as it has gone from being essentially unknown in the U.S. to a field of great interest among investigators and clinicians.
Biography:
Katherine L. Wisner MD, MS, is Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics/Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Epidemiology and Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and director of the Women’s Behavioral HealthCARE program at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) of the University Pittsburgh Medical Center. She also serves as an investigator at the Magee-Womens Research Institute. Dr. Wisner obtained an M.S. in Nutrition and an M.D. from Case Western Reserve University, followed by a categorical pediatric internship and general and child psychiatry residency at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and WPIC. She completed as a post-doctoral fellow in Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, a fellowship in Professional Ethics at Case Western Reserve University in 1996, and a certificate for the Physician Leadership and Management Program at the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Wisner’s research focuses on the psychiatric treatment of women of childbearing age. She is recognized as an expert in the treatment of depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period. She currently is the principal investigator on several National Institute of Mental Health- and foundation-funded research projects including the impact of treatment using a class of antidepressant medications on maternal role functioning during the first postpartum year, the use of antidepressants during pregnancy, novel treatments for postpartum depression and the efficacy of bright light treatment for patients with bipolar disorder.
Dr. Wisner is board-certified in general, child and adolescent psychiatry. Her memberships in scientific societies include the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists (Board member), North American Society for Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fellowship in the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Marce International Society for the Study of Childbearing-Related Psychiatric Illness (immediate past President). Dr. Wisner is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and was a consultant for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Safe Motherhood Initiative, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s report on Perinatal Depression, and the Food and Drug Administration’s pediatric subcommittee on the effects of maternal SSRI use on newborns. Dr. Wisner completed the prestigious Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program from Drexel University. She has authored more than 160 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She was awarded AMWA’s Woman in Science Award in 2011.
Susan G. Kornstein, MD
Medical School: Brown University School of Medicine
Specialty: Psychiatry
Career Highlights:
- Executive Director, Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health
- President, Academy of Women’s Health
- Past-President, International Association for Women’s Mental Health
- Past President, North American Society for Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynecology
Service with AMWA: Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Women’s Health
Quote: I’m honored to be included in this Faces of AMWA exhibition showcasing the accomplishments of women physicians. Women have made enormous contributions to the field of medicine, and we have much to celebrate!
Biography:
Susan G. Kornstein, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where she is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the VCU Institute for Women’s Health, designated a National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2003. She is also Co-Founder and Executive Director of the VCU Mood Disorders Institute, Director of Clinical Research for the Department of Psychiatry, and Medical Director of the VCU Clinical Trials Office. She is Past Chair of the VCU Division of Outpatient Psychiatry at VCU and a past member of the VCU Health System Board, a gubernatorial appointment. Dr. Kornstein is an internationally recognized researcher and thought leader with expertise in depression and women’s mental health. She has been a principal investigator on more than 70 research studies in the areas of depression, anxiety disorders, premenstrual syndrome, and sexual dysfunction. She edited the first comprehensive textbook on women’s mental health (Women’s Mental Health: A Comprehensive Textbook, Guilford Press), has authored more than 200 scientific journal articles, chapters, and abstracts, and has given many invited presentations at national and international meetings.
Dr. Kornstein is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Women’s Health, President of the Academy of Women’s Health, and Chair of the Annual Congress on Women’s Health. She is Immediate Past President of the International Association for Women’s Mental Health, Past President of the North American Society for Psychosocial Obstetrics and Gynecology, and recently chaired the 4th World Congress on Women’s Mental Health in Madrid. A Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of the American College of Psychiatrists, Dr. Kornstein has been a consultant to the U.S. Surgeon General, DHHS, and NASA on women’s mental health concerns and serves on a number of national advisory boards. She has given over 100 media interviews, including the New York Times, CNN, U.S. News and World Report, Science Magazine, and numerous women’s magazines. She has received numerous awards for her leadership and scholarship. Dr. Kornstein attended college and medical school at Brown University and completed her residency training and a fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at the Medical College of Virginia of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Maggie Kozel, MD
Medical School: Georgetown University School of Medicine
Specialty: Pediatrics
Career Highlights:
- Author, The Color of Atmosphere: One Doctor’s Journey In and Out of Medicine (Chelsea Green Publishing 2011)
- Extensive featured blogging about health care – Huffington Post, KevinMD and the New York Times
- Twenty years of caring for children and their families amidst all the competing background noises of our health care system.
- Editor, Doctors for America newsletter
Service with AMWA: Closing Speaker, AMWA National Student Conference, April 2011
Quote: It is not always a simple matter to distinguish a satisfying answer from the truth.
Biography:
Maggie Kozel, MD is a board-certified pediatrician who graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1980 and did her pediatric residency training at Bethesda Navy Hospital, Bethesda, MD, followed by three years of general pediatrics in Yokosuka Japan. Dr. Kozel moved to Rhode Island in 1990, where she practiced for twelve years, spending one year in a community health center before settling into private practice. She left clinical practice in 2001 to teach high school chemistry at an all-girls’ school in Providence, RI and to write about health care. Dr. Kozel has written a memoir, The Color of Atmosphere: One Doctor’s Journey in and Out of Medicine that compares her experiences working in the military health system to that of her civilian practice, and relates this to the current debate about health care reform in the US. Her blogs have been featured regularly in Huffington Post as well as KevinMD and have appeared in the New York Times. In addition to her writing pursuits, she organizes community forums around a wide range of current issues, with a focus on civil discourse. Dr. Kozel also speaks to physician groups as well as public forums about health care reform and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). She is a member of Doctors for America (DFA) and is editor of the DFA newsletter. Dr. Kozel lives in Jamestown, RI with her husband, Randy, and has two grown daughters.
Ana Maria López, MD, MPH, FACP
Medical School: Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University
Specialty: Oncology
Career Highlights:
- Professor of Medicine and Pathology and Associate Dean of Outreach and Multicultural Affairs, University of Arizona College of Medicine
- Founding Medical Director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program
Service with AMWA: Secretary, Reviewer and Member; Reproductive Health Initiative, Steering Committee; Arizona Branch of AMWA, Member; Program Committee, Advisory Committee, Membership Committee
Quote: Feminism demands the development of whole human beings, women and men.
Biography:
Dr. Lopez is an experienced researcher in the field of oncology, telemedicine, and patient-centered care. Dr. Lopez, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College (A.B. Philosophy) and Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University (M.D.), is dedicated to translational research that improves access to care and the reduction of health disparities. She completed residency training in Internal Medicine, served as a Chief Resident and completed fellowships in General Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the University of Arizona. As a Fellow in Medical Oncology, Dr. Lopez was awarded a Cancer Prevention and Etiology Fellowship from the National Institute of Health. Concurrent with her subspecialty training, she completed a MPH at the University of Arizona and was awarded the Epidemiology Award ($10,000) for outstanding accomplishments. She then joined the University of Arizona College of Medicine faculty and also became the Associate Dean for Outreach and Multicultural Affairs. In 1997, she was designated as the founding Medical Director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program.
With a passion for addressing issues on access to care, Dr. Lopez has embedded this priority in a majority of her studies. Studies have ranged from health research at the biological molecular level to the broader systematic health delivery level, all of which contribute to establishing optimal health care for individuals and communities. Her most recent work has focused on the promotion of patient-reported outcomes, which are intended to reflect an individual’s perspective on and participation in his or her health. This work primarily focuses on developing patient-centered technologies, which range from a patient symptom self-management program, to a patient portal to monitor health and communicate with a care team, and a screening and diagnostic decision-making tool to promote the adoption of screening recommendations. These projects have focused on serving disease-specific populations, with the intention of serving a larger population in the future.
Dr. Lopez’s research, outreach, and her realization of her beliefs have been acknowledged on numerous occasions, with recent recognitions including Women of the Year by the Hispanic Professional Action Committee (2010), Best Doctors in America (1998-2010), America’s Top Oncologists (2007 and 2008), and the Peter W. Likins Inclusive Excellence Award (2009).
Kimberly J. Templeton, MD
Medical School: University of Missouri School of Medicine
Specialty: Orthopedics
Career Highlights:
- Professor and Vice Chair of Orthopedic Surgery and Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education at the University of Kansas Medical Center
- Past President, Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society
- Past President, US Bone and Joint Initiative
- McCann Professor of Women in Medicine and Science
Service with AMWA: Member, Women’s Health Working Group; Member, Board of Directors; Co-Author, AMWA Position Statement on Osteoporosis
Biography:
Dr. Kim Templeton is Professor and Vice Chair of Orthopedic Surgery and Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City and is a graduate of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program. She was the orthopaedic residency program director from 2008 to 2023.
Dr. Templeton currently sits on the Rural Health Council for the University of Kansas. Dr. Templeton was the first McCann Professor of Women in Medicine and Science in the US and is a past-president of the Medical Society of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties, the Kansas Orthopaedic Society, Mid-Central States Orthopaedic Society, the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society, the US Bone and Joint Initiative, the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts, and AMWA. Dr. Templeton served on the Diversity Advisory Board of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) for several years, working on projects such as the culturally competent care educational DVD and accompanying book, and has served on the AAOS Council on Research and Council on Advocacy. Dr. Templeton was previously a member-at-large of the National Board of Medical Examiners and is currently a member of the ACGME Orthopaedic Residency Review Committee.
She represents AMWA on the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies within the AAMC. She is also involved in the AMA and is a past vice chair of the Women Physician Section, a past chair of the Orthopaedic Section Council, and current chair-elect of the Mobility Caucus. Dr. Templeton is a member of the NIH Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health. In 2004, she was featured in the National Library of Medicine exhibition, Local Legends: Celebrating America’s Local Women Physicians. Her research interests include sex and gender health, medical education, and issues faced by women physicians.
Diana J. Galindo, MD, FAMWA
Medical School: University of the Philippine
Specialty: Internal Medicine, Geriatrics
Career Highlights:
- 100 Most Influential Filipino American Women in the US, 2007
- Educator of the Year (2011) and Leadership Award, Cleveland Clinic Florida
- Mentor of the Year, Women’s Professional Staff Association
- Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Miami School of Medicine, 1998
Service with AMWA: President 2007-2008 Vice-President of Program; Program Co-Chair; Co-chair Advanced Curriculum for Women’s Health; Miami Branch president; Region IV Governor; Awards Committee
Quote: We can always do more to make this world a better place.
Biography:
Dr. Diana J. Galindo is a past president of the American Medical Women’s Association and is a practicing internist, geriatrician and educator at the Cleveland Clinic Florida. She is currently a Fellow of both the American College of Physicians and the American Geriatrics Society. She was also an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
She received her postgraduate training in Internal Medicine at St. Mary’s Hospital (a major affiliate of Yale University) and her Geriatrics Fellowship at the University of Miami where she held a faculty appointment as Associate Professor of Medicine. She has served as Director of the Geriatric Evaluation Management Unit and also the Hospice Unit while there. She is also serving as clinical reviewer for the American Board of Internal Medicine for the Geriatrics Board Exam.
She has written many articles and book chapters on aging and has given lectures about different topics on caring for the elderly in local, national, and international settings.
The Consumers Research Council of America and The Best Doctors in America have recognized her as one of the top doctors in Geriatrics. Her peers in Cleveland Clinic have recognized her for her work at the local and national level with the “Physician of Achievement Award” in 2008 and Educator of the Year Award in 2011. She has been chosen as one of the Top Doctors of South Florida by the Gold Coast Magazine of South Florida for several years including 2011.
Her passion has always been affordable and good health care for all and empowering all women, especially women in medicine. She has devoted much of her professional life to supporting women’s health and women in medicine. Dr. Galindo and her partner, Emilio Labrador, live in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She enjoys reading, sailing, traveling, and gardening.
Linda Brodsky, MD
Medical School: Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania
Specialty: Pediatric Otolaryngology
Career Highlights:
- Tenured Full Professor of Otolaryngology and Pediatrics, SUNY Buffalo
- Founder and President, Pediatric ENT Associates (1983-present)
- Founder and Director of the Center for Pediatric Quality, Children’s Hospital of Buffalo 1995-2005
- Founder and President of Women MD Resources 2011-present
Service with AMWA: Co-chair of the Gender Equity Task Force
Quote: It is an honor to serve my patients even though the road is filled with unexpected turns and unwarranted hazards. I remind myself constantly of two quotes from two great human beings: “Only she who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible” (Helen Keller) and “Never, never, never, never, never give up” (Winston Churchill).
Biography:
Linda Brodsky, MD is an internationally-renowned pediatric otolaryngologist and founder of Women MD Resouces, an organization dedicated to helping women physicians get the jobs they want, be paid what they deserve and “have it all.” She has been changing the way the healthcare marketplace and women physicians engage to achieve these goals. Linda spent 25 years building a well-respected department at the Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, and was the first women ever, in any surgical department, to be promoted to tenured full professor of otolaryngology and pediatrics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. At the top of her career, she became aware of information that led her to believe that her she was a victim of gender discrimination, and she spent the next 10 years fighting her way through a legal labyrinth. Since the resolution of her legal battles in 2007 and 2008, she has devoted her energies to changing the status quo for the next generation of women physicians and the patients they serve. Her full story is found on her personal website www.lindabrodskymd.com. She also blogs at www.thebrodskyblog.com and Like Mother, Like Doctor with her medical student daughter Dana at www.talkingscience.org. Launch of her new website www.womenmdresources.com is scheduled for May 1, 2012.
Martha Tracy, MD, DrPH
Medical School: Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania
Specialty: Physiological Chemistry and Hygiene
Career Highlights:
- Dean, Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania 1918-1940
- Professor of Preventive Medicine, Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania
- Assistant Director of Health in the city of Philadelphia
Service with AMWA: AMWA President 1920-1921; Scholarship Awards Chairman
Biography:
Dr. Martha Tracy, seventh dean of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, was one of the outstanding medical women of her generation and a pioneer in medical education.
Her parents, Martha Sherman Green Tracy and Jeremiah Evarts Tracy, were both descendants of Roger Sherman of Connecticut. This New England ancestry endowed Martha with integrity and forthrightness of character that won the respect of all who knew her. Her calm manner, wisdom, and good judgement, plus a keen sense of humor, were her outstanding characteristics.
In 1898, Dr. Tracy graduated from Bryn Mawr College; in 1904, she received her Medical degree from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, and in 1917 the degree of Doctor of Public Health from the University of Pennsylvania. As a graduate student at Cornell, Dr. Tracy was known for her work with Dr. Coley, in preparing “Coley’s Fluid,” used in the treatment of sarcoma. She was professor of physiological chemistry and hygiene at the Woman’s Medical College until 1917, when she became acting dean.
Between the years 1918 to 1940, as dean of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, Dr. Tracy was active in improving modern medical education. She was a leader of the deans of other medical colleges, and always took an active part in their meetings. In recognition of her accomplishments in scientific and educational fields, she was made a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Dr. Tracy was the second woman physician to achieve this honor.
Dr. Tracy found time in her busy life for many extracurricular activities. She spent her summers in her camp in the Adirondacks, and considered camping her hobby. She was active in various women’s clubs, and in 1920-21 was President of the American Medical Women’s Association.
Because of her wide experience in public health and preventive medicine, she was appointed assistant director of health in Philadelphia in 1940. During the World War II years, Dr. Tracy gave her services untiringly in Civilian Defense. It was during this period of stress and overwork that Dr. Tracy contracted pneumonia and died. This ending typified the life of Martha Tracy, never sparing of self and working constantly for a cause to which she was devoted.
Roselyn Payne Epps, MD, MPH, MA
Medical School: Howard University College of Medicine
Specialty: Pediatrics
Career Highlights:
- Acting Commissioner of Heath for the District of Columbia 1980
- Professor Emerita of Pediatrics and Child Health, Howard University
- NIH Expert, National Cancer Institute, Smoking, Tobacco and Cancer Program
Service with AMWA: AMWA President, (the first African American national president); President Branch 1 (the first African American Branch 1 president); Co-editor of AMWA’s book, The Women’s Complete Healthbook; Councilor of Research, Education, and Training
Quote: Physicians should look at opportunities both within and outside of medicine to contribute to the health of individuals and communities through their volunteer work as well as through private practice.
Biography:
Dr. Roselyn Payne Epps was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and grew up on the campus of Savannah State College in Georgia. She majored in zoology and chemistry at Howard University, graduating cum laude in 1951, and continued her medical education there, graduating with honors in 1955.
After her residency, Dr. Epps spent ten years (1961-1971) at the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health at the D.C. Department of Public Health, where she was medical officer in child health clinics, director of the comprehensive Clinic for Retarded Children, chief of the Infant and Preschool Division, director of the Children and Youth Project, chief of the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health, director of Maternal and Child Health and Crippled Children’s Services, and chief of the Bureau of Clinical Services. From 1971-1975, she was chief of the Bureau of Hospitals at the D.C. Department of Human Resources, then chief of the Bureau of Clinical Services and in 1980 became acting commissioner of public health.
In 1973, Dr. Epps earned her MPH from Johns Hopkins University. From 1995 -1998, she was a scientific program administrator at the National Cancer Institute of the NIH, where she implemented strategies to distribute smoking prevention and cessation information to health professionals. She was also program officer for several research initiatives on cancer screening and diagnosis.
Dr. Epps was a professor emerita of Pediatrics and Child Health at Howard University. From 1984-1989, she was chief of its Child Development Division and director of the Child Development Center. She also was senior program advisor to the Howard University Women’s Health Institute.
Dr. Epps authored more than ninety professional articles in peer reviewed publications, including sixteen chapters and books. She co-edited The Women’s Complete Healthbook (selected by the NY Public Library as one of 1995’s most outstanding reference books) and Developing a Child Care Program, a guide for hospital and corporate decision-makers, and wrote health columns in regional and national newspapers.
Dr. Epps was married to her medical school classmate, Charles H. Epps, Jr., MD, for 59 years. Dr. Charles Epps is an orthopedic surgeon, and over the course of his career has served as dean of Howard University’s College of Medicine and special assistant for health affairs to the president of Howard University. Three of their children earned the MD degree, and one holds an MBA. Dr. Epps was a proud grandmother of four grandsons.
Stephanie Van Dyke, MD
Medical School: Albany Medical College
Specialty: Family Medicine
Career Highlights:
- Co-Founder and Board Member of Engeye Health Clinic in Uganda
- Co-Director, Better Health Partnership
- International Federation of Medical Students’ Association, Vice president, Albany Medical College Chapter
- Panelist, World Affairs Council Northern California, San Francisco – Improving Healthcare in Africa: The Non-Profit Approach
Service with AMWA: Member
Quote: I really enjoy looking at the most oppressed parts of our society and asking, how can we make things better? If there are parts of our civilization that are in jeopardy, we all suffer. Though working toward positive change takes time, energy, money, risk and a lot of stumbling, it’s really fun to be a part of something that is true and meaningful. I want to continue to envision a better tomorrow and figure out ways to get there.
Biography:
Dr. Stephanie Van Dyke is graduating from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) rural family medicine residency in Klamath Falls, Oregon in June of 2012. She will then matriculate into an MPH program at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to focus on global health and environmental sustainability. She entered the field of medicine after being inspired while living in Uganda and witnessing the lack of healthcare and need for most basic resources. Her goal is to practice in the most underserved areas both locally and abroad and build bridges to these communities to assist in raising standards of health. During medical school she co-founded Engeye Health Clinic (www.engeye.org) along with several fellow medical students and a village of Ugandans. The clinic currently sees an average of 15,000 patients per year, a testament to the great need in the community. She continues to advocate and work with the clinic on a daily basis, which has now expanded to address the disparity in basic health, education, and environmental needs of rural Ugandan villagers.
Locally, Dr. Van Dyke co-directed Better Health Partnership, a joint partnership between Oregon Health and Science University’s rural residency (Cascades East Family Practice), the affiliated hospital, Klamath County Public Health Dept and the local newspaper that entailed a resident-led fitness program for obese patients in the community where the resident physicians exercised and trained alongside the patients. The results have been phenomenal and are inspiring further larger scale projects.
Dr. Van Dyke also has a passion for animals and animal rights and has already adopted three dogs from the Humane Society in Vieques, PR, not one of her wisest decisions while in medical school and residency.
Beatrice S. Desper, MD
Medical School: Tufts University School of Medicine
Specialty: Obstretrics, Gynecology
Career Highlights:
- Group & Solo practice 1983-2003 CT
- Private Solo Practice 2005-present Mandeville, Louisina
Service with AMWA: President 2009-2010 Multiple Board of Director positions from 1990 to 2011.
Quote: You can accomplish anything you set your mind to.
Biography:
After marrying much too young, finishing college with 1 child my senior year and pregnant with twins, having 2 more children shortly thereafter, I became divorced and then started medical school at the age of 32 as a single parent of 5. After getting my degree From Tufts in Boston, we moved to Hartford where I did my residency at St Francis Hospital in OB/GYN.
I was in private practice in Connecticut for 20 years and then moved to Louisiana. I now have a private practice of office gynecology only and will soon be doing laser tattoo removal as well as promoting weight loss and good health with Body By Visalus. In 2011, I ran for my first public office, Coroner of St. Tammany Parish against a 12-year incumbent. The “old boys club” and his abundant war chest was too much for a beginner to overcome. It was quite an experience, although not on my bucket list.
As a medical student I had 2 loans from AMWA (both paid back in full) and have been a member since my residency. Over the years I’ve held many positions on the Board of Directors, culminating with the Presidency of AMWA from 2009-2010. I am a lifetime member and will be at the annual meetings as long as I am physically able. I will also continue to assist the Board in any way that I can be useful.
[Faces of AMWA] Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH
Executive Director
Medical School: Harvard Medical School
Specialty: Internal Medicine
Career Highlights:
- Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons
- Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
- Editor, This Side of Doctoring: Reflections from Women in Medicine
- Featured in the National Library of Medicine Exhibition, Changing the Face of Medicine
Service with AMWA: President 2010-2011; American Women’s Hospitals Service Co-Chair; Program Co-Chair; Governance Co-Chair; Archives Chair; Founder AMWA’s Networking Alliance; Branch 30 President
Quote: Never underestimate the power of networking among women and our ability to achieve success through collaboration.
Biography:
Dr. Eliza Lo Chin graduated with highest honors from the University of California, Berkeley, received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed an M.P.H. at Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health. She trained in primary care internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. After her training, she joined the clinical faculty at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons where she maintained two clinical practices and was actively involved in the teaching programs as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine.
As a young wife and mother, Dr. Chin became interested in the unique challenges facing women in medicine. From 1999-2001, she compiled writings from women in medicine, culminating in the publication of This Side of Doctoring: Reflections from Women in Medicine in 2002. During this time, she was a visiting scholar at the Women’s Leadership Institute of Mill’s College and was featured in the National Library of Medicine’s exhibition, Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians.
Dr. Chin became active in AMWA, first as Branch 30 (San Francisco, CA) President and later through national leadership roles. A highlight of her career was the opportunity to become President in 2010 and help rebuild the organization that she had come to know and admire. She led the effort to establish AMWA’s Legacy Exhibit at Drexel University, College of Medicine and AMWA’s Networking Alliance to foster collaborations with other professional medical organizations. She received the AMA Women Physicians Congress (WPC) Physician Mentor Recognition in 2011 and an AMWA Presidential Award in 2012.
Dr. Chin currently resides in Northern California with her husband Dr. Douglas Chin and their three children. She practices medicine part-time with a focus in geriatrics. As an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, she continues to be involved in medical education. She has lectured widely on the topic of women in medicine both locally and nationally. In her spare time, she is an active school volunteer and a Girl Scout Leader. She enjoys traveling with her family, taking them to AMWA meetings whenever possible.
Maude Glasgow, MD
Medical School: Cornell University Medical College, 1901
Specialty: Preventive Medicine, Public Health
Career Highlights:
- Medical inspector in the Department of Health (New York)
- Chief woman physician of the New York Telephone Company
- Author, Life and Law, The Scotch-Irish, The Subjection of Woman, and Problems of Sex
Service with AMWA: Established the Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Award and the Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Achievement Citations
Biography:
Dr. Maude Glasgow was a pioneer in preventive medicine and public health. Born in Ireland, she attended Marlborough Street College in Dublin, Ireland. She came to New York and received her degree in nursing from the Mount Sinai Training School for Nurses. She then decided to study medicine and received her degree in 1901 from Cornell University Medical College.
During her professional career, she served as medical inspector in the Department of Health (New York) and chief woman physician of the New York Telephone Company. Her work involved public health education and employee physical examinations. She later received a degree in public health from New York University and Bellevue Medical College in 1921.
She published a number of books, including Life and Law (GP Putnam’s Sons), The Scotch-Irish, The Subjection of Woman, and Problems of Sex. The last book shows that women were the first doctors; that in the earliest civilizations, women were rulers; and that during the time they ruled, more than a thousand years, there were no wars.
Dr. Glasgow was an honorary member of the International Mark Twain Society and of the Eugene Field Society. She worked valiantly to promote better health conditions in New York. She kept up her interest in the welfare of women all her life, and spent much time in research and in writing books for their benefit. She gave generously to the American Medical Women’s Association to support young women studying medicine. AMWA’s Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Award is given to the woman who graduates first in her class. The Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Achievement Citations recognize female students who graduate in the top 10% of their class. Dr. Glasgow established this award in honor of her sister Janet, who unselfishly gave of her time and resources to see that Dr. Glasgow completed her medical education.]]
Her obituary in the Ballymena Weekly Telegraph (9 December 1955) mentions her participation “in the crusade for votes for women.”
Laura Helfman, MD
Medical School: Medical College of Pennsylvania
Specialty: Emergency Medicine with interest in Pediatrics; Wilderness Medicine
Career Highlights:
- Clinical appointment at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger, Chattanooga TN
- Lead Instructor for Wilderness Medical Associates
- International work in La Paz, Bolivia
- Advocate for women’s health
Service with AMWA: Co-chair of American Women’s Hospitals Service; Co-chair Resolutions Committee; National Student Co-chair; Membership Committee
Quote: Create Positivity!
Biography:
I was born in New York City and stayed in the metro area while attending Barnard College. I continued my association with “women’s institutions” while attending Medical College of PA (formerly Women’s Medical College) and by joining AMWA as a student.
I then traveled the country and landed in rural Tennessee where I live with my husband. I enjoy mentoring and advocating for women’s health and the environment. I am also a lead instructor with Wilderness Medical Associates which teaches Wilderness First Responder courses to outdoor professionals. I have also joined the Disaster Management Assistance Team which the government deploys to national and international disasters. When not working in medicine, I work as a White Water Raft guide in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Colorado. This smorgasbord of careers gives me a lot of flexibility, which allows my husband and I to travel during his vacations. Future plans include more travel and international medicine.
I have been an AMWA member since 1981 which was my 1st year of medical school. I became a National Student Coordinator during my 3rd year and stayed active on several committees. I am currently Co-chair of the Americen Women’s Hospitals Service (AWHS). AMWA has provided an incredible support system, a place both to mentor and be mentored as well as a place to advocate for change.
Kate B. Karpeles, MD
Medical School: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1914
Specialty: Surgery
Career Highlights:
- Dr. Karpeles was first woman to be appointed as a contract surgeon with the army, during WWI.
Service with AMWA: President, 1938-1939; First Vice-President, Legislation Chairman; District of Columbia Medical Women’s Society President
Biography:
Dr. Kate Karpeles became a physician following in the footsteps of her father. He encouraged her to study medicine and, after completing an undergraduate degree at Goucher College in Baltimore, she chose Johns Hopkins University for medical school, based on its high admission standards and its well-known revised curriculum (following the Flexner report). She earned her medical degree in 1914, but she had a difficult time obtaining an internship, as many programs denied her entrance based on her gender. She later became the first female intern at Garfield Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C.; however, that hospital was considered of lower quality than someone of her training at Johns Hopkins ought to have been able to attain.
She continued to press forward in her career and became the first woman to be appointed a contract surgeon with the United States Army. She was given a relative rank of first Lieutenant and was stationed at the emergency dispensary of the War Department in Washington, D.C. After World War I, she continued a career in surgery, as well as pushing for women’s rights. She served as president of the American Medical Women’s Association from 1938-39, where her main goal was to increase membership in the organization. As AMWA president, she also advocated for equal pay and treatment of women physicians in the US Military.
Dr. Karpeles is buried next to her husband Dr. Simon Karpeles in Arlington cemetery due to their service with honor in World War I.
Lena K. Sadler, MD, FACS
Medical School: American Medical Missionary College (Illinois State University), 1906
Specialty: Obstetrics, Women’s Health
Career Highlights:
- Associate Director, Chicago Institute of Research & Diagnosis
- Illinois Federation of Women’s Clubs (Chairman of Child Welfare 1925)
- State of Illinois Department of Public Health and Child Welfare (Chairman 1926)
- Chicago Council of Medical Woman (President 1929, 1930, Secretary 1924–1925)
Service with AMWA: President 1934-1935; Secretary 1925–1926; First and Second Vice-President; Public Health Chairman
Biography:
Dr. Lena Sadler was born Lena Kellog in Abscota, Michigan in 1875. She completed a literary education as a young woman, and then decided to pursue work in healthcare. While in nursing school, she met William Sadler, and they married in 1897. Both had active interests in matters of health and they decided to pursue the study of medicine together. They enrolled in the American Medical Missionary College, later called Illinois State University, and graduated with equal honors in 1906. They had one son, William Sadler, Jr., born in 1907.
For twenty years, the two Dr. Sadlers worked as physicians with the Seventh-day Adventist Missions in Chicago and San Francisco, giving medical care to the patrons of the rescue missions. Dr. Lena Sadler also focused on ministering to women detained in Chicago jails. She toured annually on the Redpath Chautauqua Circuit, a traveling lecture circuit to educate community members on a wide variety of topics. She taught about health, especially women’s and maternal health and hygiene.
The Sadlers were known for beginning a local discussion group in Chicago known as “The Forum,” in which community members gathered to discuss topics of science, religion, history and destiny. Dr. Lena Sadler also pursued post-graduate studies in Paris.
Dr. Lena Sadler was instrumental in many women’s health issues in Illinois during the 1920s. She directed a survey of midwives in Chicago with the Chicago Health Department. As Chairwoman of Child Welfare for both the State of Illinois and the Illinois Federation of Women’s Clubs, she helped forge an alliance among the Illinois State Medical Society, Illinois State Dental Society, the State Department of Public Health and the Illinois Federation of Women’s Clubs – all for the purpose of bringing about more united efforts for health improvement in the state. In her position as State Chairwoman of Public Health and Child Welfare, she advocated for public health across the lifespan.
Dr. Sadler authored various books including a history of medical women in Illinois and a perinatal manual entitled How to the Feed the Baby. She was a contributing author to various publications and leading magazines.
Dr. Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy
Medical School: University of Oregon Medical School, 1894
Specialty: Obstetrics & Gynecology
Career Highlights:
- Chairman, Portland Board of Health (Oregon)
Service with AMWA: President 1932-1933; Chair, American Women’s Hospitals Service 1919-1965; President, Medical Women’s International Association 1919-1924
Quote: I am most proud of the work of the women of the American Women’s Hospitals and what they have accomplished. They are doing in a practical way the things that everyone else is discussing – their bit to build and create friendly relations with the peoples who have undergone such frightful suffering.
Biography:
Dr. Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy was born in 1869 and grew up in Portland, Oregon. She admired the woman doctor who delivered her youngest sister, and so she began her studies at the University of Oregon’s Medical School in 1894. She married a classmate, Emil Pohl, and they lived in Portland where she worked as an obstetrician and her husband, a surgeon. The couple had a son in 1901, and left him to be cared for by her mom while she worked in Vienna, Austria and campaigned for women’s suffrage at home. Dr. Pohl returned to Portland in 1904 and was the first woman to direct the Portland Board of Health. The Board of Health had several advances while she was the lead, including regulating the milk supply, providing funds for school nurses, and securing Portland a national reputation for its high sanitation standards. In 1908, she lost both her son and her husband to medical tragedies. She continued to work, despite the deep losses and later would establish the Pohl Memorial Fund at the University of Oregon Medical School, in their memory. In 1912, Dr. Clayson Pohl married Portland businessman, George Lovejoy a marriage that would last for the next 7 years.
Dr. Lovejoy was a staunch supporter of women’s suffrage, the League of Nations, and Prohibition. She also ran for Congress, though unsuccessfully. After the start of World War I, Dr. Lovejoy helped establish the American Women’s Hospitals Service (AWHS), a program within AMWA which brought humanitarian relief to areas ravaged by war, famine, and natural disasters. She directed that program for 47 years. In appreciation of her service in Greece, she was presented with the keys to the city of Retimo where a street was also named in her honor.
In 1919, Dr. Lovejoy helped found the Medical Women’s International Association, which brought together medical women from all over the world. A portrait of Dr. Lovejoy is displayed in the Esther Pohl Lovejoy Hall at the Philippine Medical Women’s Association building in Manila.
Dr. Lovejoy published 4 books – Women Physicians and Surgeons, Women Doctors of the World, House of a Good Neighbor, and Certain Samaritans, the last of which chronicles the noble work of AWHS in Europe and the Near East. She lived a long and productive life for 97 years, ever a supporter of women in medicine.
Christine E. Haycock, MD
Medical School: Downstate Medical School, State University of New York, 1952
Specialty: Surgery
Career Highlights:
- Professor Emeritus of Surgery and Director of Emergency Services, New Jersey Medical School
- Colonel, U.S. Army Medical Corps Reserve
- Alma Dea Morani Renaissance Woman Award, 2006
- Fellow, American College of Surgeons.
Service with AMWA: President 1981-1982; Chairman Publicity and Public Relations Committee; Chairman Legislative Committee; Councilor on Organization and Management; Councilor on Research, Education and Training; Second and First Vice-President; President AMWA Branch 4 (New Jersey)
Biography:
Dr. Christine E. Haycock, distinguished surgeon and leading expert in sports medicine for women, was born in Mt. Vernon, NY and raised in Richmond, VA and then in Nutley, NJ. Following high school, she attended the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago. She was an outstanding athlete in her youth, participating in the US fencing squad for the Olympics in the late 1940’s and as a softball pitcher with several top teams.
Before becoming a surgeon, Dr. Haycock served in the army during WWII in the US Cadet Nurse Corps, earned her medical degree from the State University of New York in 1952, and went on to become the first woman intern at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She also had a master’s degree in political science from Rutgers University and was a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and the US Army War College. After many years in the Army Medical Corps, she retired in 1984 from Active Reserve Status at the rank of colonel, having earned two Commendation Medals and a Meritorious Service Medal. Her service as commander of the Army’s 322nd General Hospital paved a way for women to serve in the military, and even more so as a medical practitioner.
Following active duty in WWII, Dr. Haycock completed her surgical residency in New York before returning to Newark, NJ where she opened a private practice in general surgery. She joined the faculty of the New Jersey Medical School as associate professor of surgery and director of emergency services in 1968 and helped establish the trauma center at University Hospital in Newark. In addition to her work on eradicating uterine cancer, she was a leading expert in sports medicine (particularly women in sports). She served as president of both the New Jersey Medical Women’s Association and the American Medical Women’s Association.
Outside of medicine, Dr. Haycock found time to be a photographer, videographer, amateur radio operator and dog breeder. She was elected to Fellowship in the Photographic Society of America. In 2004, she was awarded the Alma Dea Morani Renaissance Woman award by The Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine.
She was married to Samuel Moskowitz, a noted science fiction historian.
Laura Ehrlich Morrow, MD, DLFAPA
Medical School: University of Pennsylvania Medical School, 1937
Specialty: Psychiatry
Career Highlights:
- Director of Psychiatry and Senior Attending Physician at Passaic General Hospital
- Passaic Medical Society, Chair of the Mental Hygiene Committee
- President of the New Jersey Psychiatric Association
- New Jersey Medical Society, Chair, Special Committee on Drug Abuse and on the State Committee on Aging.
Service with AMWA: President 1968-1969; Second Vice-President; Chair, Committee on Constitution & Bylaws; Program Chair; Chair, Publicity and Public Relations; Chair, Lectureship Committee; Councilor for Growth and Development; President Branch 4 (New Jersey); MWIA delegate
Biography:
Born in New York City on October 8, 2013 and raised in Lyndhurst, NJ, Dr. Laura Morrow graduated Phi Beta Kappa from New Jersey College for Women – now known as Douglass College (1933), and with honors from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School (1937), one of five women in her class. She did her internship at Lancaster General Hospital in Pennsylvania and her psychiatric residency at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, DC, where she met her husband, J. Lloyd Morrow, MD. They were married three weeks later, on Thanksgiving Day 1939, and completed their residencies at Greystone – NJ Psychiatric Hospital, remaining together for 44 years until his death in 1982.
During World War II, she stayed in Lyndhurst while her husband served overseas in the South Pacific. The only physician in town, she delivered babies, performed surgeries, treated illnesses, and volunteered with the Red Cross. She later practiced in Rutherford, Passaic and Clifton, NJ, “retiring” in the early 1990s. She became active with AMWA while living in Passaic and, in addition to the academic aspects of medicine, she was dedicated to helping young women go in to the field and become physicians.
As a psychiatrist, she was able to deftly guide people to self-realization and empowerment so that they were able to fulfill both their personal and work-related responsibilities and feel good about themselves. She and her husband worked side by side in their home offices and were committed to helping people and keeping families together. They utilized a unique eclectic approach, blending modalities with amazing results. They were pioneers in the use of ECT, EEG’s and psychotropic medication.
Dr. Morrow was a 50-year Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the American Geriatric Society, former director of Psychiatry and senior attending physician at Passaic General Hospital, the first woman president of the Society of Clinical Psychiatrists of Northern NJ, president of the NJ Psychiatric Association (1967-68), Woman of the Year (NJ Medical Women’s Association 1968), Jerseyan of the Week (May 1968), staff physician at Beth Israel and St. Mary’s Hospitals (Passaic, NJ), and a leader in many other local, state and national medical groups. She was awarded AMWA’s Elizabeth Blackwell Medal (1974), inducted into The Douglass Society at Rutgers (1976), awarded the “Golden Merit Award” from the NJPA and appointed to New Jersey’s first Agent Orange Commission. She was always out there, participating in radio / television appearances and book reviews.
Dr. Morrow served as AMWA President from 1968-1969 and was involved with the creation of the Elizabeth Blackwell commemorative US postal stamp honoring women in medicine. Her efforts to encourage women to go into medicine were multifaceted and unrelenting. Her daughter, Mary Ellen Morrow, remains active in AMWA, carrying the torch, and utilizing her professional photography skills to document and capture the spirit of AMWA at Annual Meetings. She also leaves behind three sons – Charles (a composer), Kenneth (a CPA), and Robert (a family physician) and 9 grandchildren. All live in the New York metropolitan area.
Misty C. Richards, MD, MS
Medical School: Albany Medical College
Specialty: Psychiatry
Career Highlights:
- Fulbright Scholar in Medicine
- Co-Founder, Engeye Health Clinic in Uganda
- AMA Excellence in Medicine Award 2011
- AMWA Anne C. Carter Leadership Award 2009
Service with AMWA: National Student President, 2009-2010
Quote: AMWA empowered me to strive for the best in my personal and professional life, while also fostering a level of camaraderie I have never felt before. Through this organization, I have established incredible mentors, colleagues, and friends who have truly enhanced my experience as a woman in medicine. I am grateful.
Biography:
Misty Richards M.D., M.S. is a PGY-1 in psychiatry at UCLA who is interested in integrating child and adolescent psychiatry and global medicine. She graduated from the MD/MS program at Albany Medical College, receiving her Master of Science degree in neuroscience in May 2010. She is a Fulbright Scholar and completed her graduate fellowship as part of her master’s degree in Tokyo, Japan during the 2008-2009 academic year. That same year, Dr. Richards felt honored to receive the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) Anne C. Carter Leadership Award for her contributions to the student division of AMWA as National Student President. It was in this setting where she rebuilt an active student division consisting of thousands of medical students, empowering them to advocate for equality in medicine. Through this experience, she learned about leadership and dedication to a cause, earning the AMA Excellence in Medicine Award in 2011.
Additionally, in her second year of medical school, Dr. Richards co-founded a medical clinic in rural Uganda called the Engeye Health Clinic. The clinic is the only source of health care for miles and has treated over 35,000 patients to date.
She has published over 35 research articles and is the recipient of numerous awards — election to the Gold Humanism Honor Society, the Leah Dickstein Award, the Roy L. Leak Alumni Memorial Scholarship, the Lindsey Baron Foundation Award, the James Bell MD Award, and the Brophey Scholarship.
Dr. Richards is honored to be featured in the Faces of AMWA exhibit and hopes to stay involved with AMWA for years to come.
A. Lois Scully, MD, FACP
Medical School: Stanford University School of Medicine
Specialty: Endocrinology
Career Highlights:
- Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
- President, Stanford Medical Alumni Association
- President, Medical Alumni Association, UCSF
Service with AMWA: President 1978-1979, Treasurer; Finance Committee Member; President Branch 30 (San Francisco, CA)
Quote:
Biography:
Dr. A. Lois Scully wanted to be a physician since the eighth grade but was discouraged by school counselors who told her that she would encounter strong prejudice. So instead, she obtained a masters degree in medical technology, worked in a pathology lab, and taught microbiology at the University of Idaho. She eventually came back to medicine, graduating from Stanford University School of Medicine where she was one of four women in her class. She does not recall encountering any prejudice then but does remember the support that she received as a woman. She remained at Stanford for a residency in internal medicine and then completed a fellowship in endocrinology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School of London.
In 1958, Dr. Scully joined the staff at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) as an attending physician. She became involved with residency teaching programs at the hospital and served on a number of committees. At the same time, she joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), ultimately becoming Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF. She also served on the staff at Children’s Hospital of San Francisco. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Dr. Scully became active in AMWA both at the branch and national level, serving first as branch president and then as the national AMWA president from 1978-1979. In an era when women physicians were a distinct minority, Dr. Scully recalls what it was like to mentor and to be mentored. She continues today to be an advocate for women in the profession and is pleased to see the growing numbers of women physicians today.
Dr. Scully retired from active practice at the end of 2004. She remains a lifetime member of AMWA, a member of the CPMC Retired Physicians Committee, and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). She enjoys reading and volunteers regularly at her church.
Stephanie Nagy-Agren, MD, FACP
Medical School: University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Specialty: Infectious Diseases
Career Highlights:
- Associate Professor of Clinical Internal Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine
- Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
- YWCA Woman of Achievement, Health/Sciences 2010, Roanoke VA
- Fellow, American College of Physicians
Service with AMWA: Member, Gender Equity Task Force
Quote: children’s lives do not wait until after hours. — Womanhood and motherhood must be honored, work of home and family must be shared, ethic must be valued over profit so women have the ability to raise children while maintaining remunerated work. Girls must feel worthy, and be recognized so—worthy to grow to be healthy, able women and mothers.
Biography:
Dr. Stephanie Nagy-Agren is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Clinical Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She is Chief, Infectious Diseases at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Salem, VA and is responsible for the administrative, clinical, education and research activities for the section. An AOA graduate of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, she completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and her postdoctoral fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at Yale University School of Medicine. She completed postgraduate research in the Department of Immunology at Stockholm University (Sweden). An educator and researcher, she has held a variety of academic, administrative and hospital appointments and has served on both national and local committees and symposia with focus on infectious diseases. She served on the interim Faculty Affairs committee in planning for the new school of medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion, which began instruction in 2010. Interested in the medical humanities, the arts, and narrative medicine, her essay ‘I Have a Girl Child,’ dealing with women and girls and HIV infection, was published in JAMA.
Vivian W. Pinn, MD
Medical School: University of Virginia School of Medicine
Specialty: Pathology
Career Highlights:
- Director, Office of Research on Women’s Health, NIH (1991-2011)
- Associate Director for Research on Women’s Health, NIH
- Professor and Chair, Department of Pathology, Howard University College of Medicine
- Associate Professor of Pathology, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, Tufts University School of Medicine
Service with AMWA: Dr. Pinn has attended numerous AMWA conventions and has been a keynote speaker a number of times, including Keynote Speaker at the AMWA 95th Anniversary Gala (2010).
Quote: As AMWA approaches its Centennial Anniversary, there is much to celebrate, and yet, many challenges left to overcome for women in medicine and a full contextual understanding about women’s health and health care. Together, there is the synergy of each of our individual strengths, and we must endeavor to give of ourselves to improve the paths for successful advancement and enjoyable work/life balance for women who follow us in the marvelous profession of medicine.
Biography:
Vivian W. Pinn, MD was the inaugural full-time director of the Office ofResearch on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1991 and Associate Director of NIH for Women’s Health Research from 1994 until her retirement in 2011. Under her leadership, this new office led the implementation of NIH research inclusion policies for women aznd minorities in clinical research, developed the first ever, and several later, national strategic plans for women’s health research and established many new research funding initiatives and career development programs, including interdisciplinary initiatives, in collaboration with NIH Institutes and Centers. During that time, she also established and co-chaired the NIH Committee on Women in Biomedical Careers with the NIH Director. She has since been named as a Senior Scientist Emerita at the NIH Fogarty International Center. She has presented her perceptions of women’s health and sex/gender research, health disparities, as well as challenges in biomedical careers to national and international audiences, and has served as a mentor to hundreds of young women and men of all races. A special tribute by Senator Olympia Snowe on Dr.Pinn’s retirement was published in the Congressional Record in November 2011 commending her contributions during her NIH tenure. At the time of her retirement, The Association of American Medical Colleges awarded her a Special Recognition Award for exceptional leadership over a forty-year career.
She came to the NIH from Howard University College of Medicine, where she had been Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology since 1982, the 3rd woman in the US to hold such an appointment and the first African American woman. Dr. Pinn also previously held teaching appointments in Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University where she was also Assistant Dean for Student Affairs. Her professional area of focus in Pathology was Immunopathology, specifically renal and autoimmune diseases and transplant pathology. She now also holds the position of Professor, Institute for Advanced Discovery & Innovation at theUniversity of South Florida.
She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was elected to theNational Academy of Medicine (IOM) in 1995. She served several terms on the National Academies Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine and was a member of the National Academies committee that prepared the report on ‘Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine: Opening Doors’ which was released in the spring of 2020. She is also a member of the National Academies Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. A graduate and Alumna Achievement Award recipient as well as former Alumna Trustee of Wellesley College, she earned her M.D.in 1967 from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, the only woman and only minority in her class. She completed her post-graduate training in Pathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard University before joining the faculty of Tufts. Dr. Pinn has over 200 scientific publications and book chapters, including Forewords, and has given more than 500 keynote speeches, lectures and presentations since 1991.
A native of Lynchburg, Virginia, educated in segregated public schools, Dr. Pinn has received 17 Honorary Degrees of Science, Law and Medicine. The University of Virginia School of Medicine has named one of its four advisory medical student colleges as ‘The Pinn College’ in her honor. Tufts University School of Medicine in 2011 announced the ‘The Vivian W. Pinn Office of Student Affairs’, named for her at the time her former medical students dedicated a scholarship in her name, the Vivian W. Pinn Scholarship Fund to support needy students to have the opportunity to study medicine at Tufts. She has held leadership positions in many professional organizations, including that as the 88th President of the National Medical Association (NMA) and is currently Chair of the NMA Past Presidents Council. Dr. Pinn serves on the Board of Trustees/Advisors of Thomas Jefferson University, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson, andTufts University School of Medicine.
Dr. Pinn has received more than 300honors and awards. She was elected to Modern Healthcare’s Hall of Fame, the first African American woman to be so honored and is also a recipient of the New York Academy of Medicine Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Health Policy and the American Medical Women’s Association Elizabeth Blackwell Award. Among many other recent honors, she received a special Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership of Drexel University in 2017, and she also served as the 2017-2018 Leader-in-Residence at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies of theUniversity of Richmond. In 2019, she was presented with the John D.Thompson Distinguished Visiting Fellow Award by the Yale University School of Public Health. She recently received the 2020 American Medical Association’s Distinguished Service Award for her leadership in women’s health as well as the 2020 Alma Dea Morani Award from the Women in MedicineLegacy Foundation and the New York Academy of Medicine.
Lectures in women’s health named for her have been established at the National Institutes of Health, the National Women’s Health Congress, and the National Medical Association. One of her greatest honors has been the announcement by the University of Virginia in the fall of 2016 that the medical research and education building was renamed for her as “Pinn Hall.”And in December 2016, the UVA medical school also announced the inaugural Pinn Scholars program to support and recognize mid-level faculty in efforts to take their research in novel directions. Her oral history is included in the National Library of Medicine’s exhibit on women physicians, ‘Changing the Face ofMedicine’; in the University of Virginia’s project ‘Explorations in Black Leadership’ conducted by Julian Bond; and, in The History Makers collection which is now housed in the Library of Congress.
Lila Amdurska Wallis, MD
Medical School: Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons
Specialty: Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Hematology
Career Highlights:
- Clinical Professor of Medicine, Weill-Cornell Medical College, Cornell University
- Created and directed Cornell’s Teaching Associates programs for genital examinations
- Developed and directed for 30+ years Cornell’s Update Your Medicine programs
- Founding President, National Council on Women’s Health
Service with AMWA: President 1988-1989; First director of AMWA regional conferences
Biography:
Dr. Wallis was a university student when the German Army invaded and occupied her homeland in 1939. She became a member of the Polish underground resistance, secretly caring for members of the underground and teaching Polish to local children when the Germans closed the schools. The realities of war convinced her of the value of medicine to society.
Dr. Wallis came to the U.S. in 1946 and received her B.A. in Chemistry from Barnard College (1947, Summa Cum Laude) and her MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (1951, AOA). She completed her residency in internal medicine in 1956 at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, specializing in Hematology and Endocrinology/Metabolism. She then worked at the Strang Clinic where Dr. May Chinn, the first African-American woman to complete a residency at Bellevue Hospital taught her the art of the competent and painless pelvic exam.
Dr. Wallis is an authority on osteoporosis, estrogen therapy, and menopause. A dedicated educator, she instituted the “Update Your Medicine” program at Cornell in 1974, one of the first, and now the longest-running CME program in the U.S.
In 1979, she created the Teaching Associates program at Cornell University Medical College which specially trained health professionals to provide instruction and feedback to students as they developed more sensitive and competent breast and pelvic exams and male genitorectal exams. She helped introduce similar programs to other New York City medical schools.
Dr. Wallis has published the Textbook of Women’s Health (1998) for professionals and The Whole Woman: Take Charge of Your Health in Every Phase of Your Life (co-authored with Marian Betancourt, 1999) for the public. She served on numerous editorial boards (including the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, Journal of Women’s Health, Rodale Books on Women’s Health, and the National Academy on Women’s Health Medical Education). She received many awards, appeared nationally on Good Morning America, Today, CNN News, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and World News with Peter Jennings and has spoken at over one hundred programs before medical and non-medical audiences.
Colleagues describe Lila A. Wallis, M.D., as “the godmother of women’s health.” For half a century she has been a leading advocate for women’s rights to high standards of compassionate care and a partnership role in decisions about their treatment.
Constance Urciolo Battle, MD, FAAP
Medical School: The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Science
Specialty: Pediatrics
Career Highlights:
- Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director of the Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC (1973-1995)
- Editor of Essentials of Public Health Biology: A Guide for the Study of Pathophysiology (Jones and Bartlett, 2009
- Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatrics, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
- Trustee of the University, President of the George Washington Alumni Association and the Medical School Alumni Association
Service with AMWA: President 1985-1986; Awards Committee Chair; Nominating Committee Chair; Co-Chair Strategic Planning Committee; Consultant Management Oversight Committee; Director of Continuing Medical Education.
Biography:
Constance Urciolo Battle, MD, has served as a faculty member in the Department of Prevention and Community Health in the School of Public Health and Health Services since 2003 and as a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at The George Washington University and as a member of the academic staff at Children’s National Medical Center since 1977. In 2006-2007, Dr. Battle served as Director of the Undergraduate Program in Public Health. At the Kennedy Institute, she is the chairman of the Health Services Advisory Committee of the Early Head Start Program begun in 2010 and Medical Director of the Infant-to-Three Program.
After Trinity College, Dr. Battle graduated from George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Science and completed her pediatric residency at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester (NY). She was awarded a Health Services and Research Fellowship from the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare for study at the Center of Health Administration Studies of the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. During 1993-1994, Dr. Battle was a fellow in the Creating Healthier Communities Fellowship of the Healthcare Forum.
Throughout her career as a physician, Dr. Battle has focused on pediatric and adolescent health care for children with disabilities or chronic illness and she is active in many professional organizations that advocate on their behalf. She also served as chairman of the Scientific Review Board of Children’s Hospice International, which developed guidelines for pediatric hospice care. She is a member of the Children with Disabilities Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics and currently serves on the committee of the George Washington Department of Disability Services and its community partners.
During 1997, Dr. Battle served as Interim Director of the Child Development Center of the Department of Pediatrics of the Howard University School of Medicine. Before returning to the George Washington University in 2003, she served as Executive Director of the Foundation for the National Institute of Health.
Dr. Battle received the Excellence in Teaching Award for George Washington University’s Undergraduate Public Health Program in 2005, 2008, and 2011.
She is married to Charles Steerman, Ph.D. and has three children: Ursula, Bill, and Christopher.
Sharyn Ann Lenhart, MD, FAPA
Medical School: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Specialty: Psychiatry
Career Highlights:
- Nationally recognized author lecturer and forensic expert on the subjects of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and women’s mental health
- Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, University of Massachusetts Medical School
- One of three Massachusetts Psychiatrists elected a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association for achievements in Women’s Mental Health and Leadership in 2003
- Leader of Physician International Outreach Programs to China and Scandinavia
Service with AMWA: President 1997-98; Chair, Leadership Task Force; Chair, Gender in Medicine Task Force; Chair, Gender Equity Committee; Vice President For Professional Development; Co-Chair Program Committee; Chair-Women’s Health Committee; Chair, AMWA Career Development Institute Advisory Board; Chair, AMWA National Cervical Cancer Public Education Campaign; JAMWA Editorial Board; Editor: JAMWA Special Issue: Gender Equity in Medicine (1993); Group Leader; AMWA International Outreach Programs to China and Scandinavia (1998)
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Biography:
Sharyn Ann Lenhart MD, FAPA is a psychiatrist in an academic private practice in Concord, MA. Her special interests are in women’s mental health, psychological trauma, and sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the workplace. Dr. Lenhart holds a clinical academic appointment at Harvard Medical School and is a Senior Attending Psychiatrist at McLean Hospital/Massachusetts General where she has provided consultations, staff supervision, lectures, and teaching. She has also taught on the faculty at University of Massachusetts Medical School.
In addition to her private practice, Dr Lenhart has acted as a consultant to police departments, community hospitals, Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions, Employee Health Services, the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, Medical Student Counseling Services and the television series, <i>ER</i>. A former inpatient psychiatry unit chief and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, she has served on numerous academic committees related to medical education, faculty development, and women in medicine and has given Grand Rounds and training sessions on gender equity to medical schools and medical societies throughout the U.S. She has published numerous books and articles related to women’s mental health, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination, including a special 1993 JAMWA issue on “Gender Equity in Medicine.” She has also testified as an expert witness in multiple cases related to this issue. These issues were a central focus of her AMWA presidency, as were her international outreach activities.
Dr. Lenhart is the recipient of multiple awards, including the AMWA President’s Award, the IHAN/United Nations Woman of Achievement Citation, the Allegheny College Gold Citation, and the AMWA Community Service Award (for her public service women’s health programs). In 2002, she was one of three Massachusetts psychiatrists elected a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
In her personal life, Dr. Lenhart enjoys sports, travel, theater, and music. She has been active in her local parent /teacher organization, community emergency medical service, Council on Aging, and the Colonial Figure Skating Club. She has also served as a chaperone for the US Figure Skating Association at national and international competitions. Dr. Lenhart lives in Concord, MA with her husband Lloyd Price M.D., a forensic psychiatrist, and has two daughters, Allison, an academic dean and Heather, an attorney.
Janet G. Travell, MD
Medical School: Cornell University Medical College, 1926
Specialty: Pain Medicine
Career Highlights:
- Leading pioneer in the study of referred pain and the discovery of trigger points
- Honorary and Emeritus Clinical Professor of Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine
- White House Physician to the President of the United States (1961–1965, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson)
- Co-author of Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual and author of Office Hours: Day and Night
Service with AMWA:
Quote: Life is like a bicycle – you don’t fall off until you stop pedaling…It is better to wear out than to rust out, so keep pedaling.
Biography:
Janet Travell was born in New York City on December 17, 1901. At an early age she decided to become a doctor. She graduated from Wellesley College (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1922 and the Cornell University Medical College (AOA) in 1926, the top of her medical school class. After her internship at the New York Hospital, she married John W.G. “Jack” Powell, an investment counselor and had two children, Janet and Virginia.
Dr. Travell studied arterial disease at Beth Israel Hospital and was a cardiologist at Sea View Hospital in Staten Island, NY (1936-1945). As an Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at Cornell, she pursued an interest in pain, specifically the relief of muscle pain, an area of medicine pioneered by her father, John Willard Travell, MD. They practiced together at 9 West 16th Street in New York City. In 1955, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts was referred to her for chronic pain in his knee and lower back. The relief that her treatments gave him offered him “new hope for a life free from crutches if not from backache,” wrote his friend and advisor, Ted Sorensen, in his book Kennedy.
In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Dr. Travell to be the White House Physician, the first woman to hold that post. She remained at the White House under President Johnson until 1965, resigning her post in order to return to private life and work on her writing. Her autobiography Office Hours: Day and Night was published in 1968 and her two-volume textbook, Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual co-authored with David G. Simons, M.D., was published in 1983 and 1992. She authored more than 100 scientific papers and has been recognized as one of the leading pioneers in the diagnosis and treatment of myofascial pain, particularly in the concept of referred pain and the discovery of trigger points. In his book, Clair Davies credits Dr. Travell for having “single-handedly created this branch of medicine.” Newly out of print books are available for purchase through her daughters. Read more on Facebook.
After many years on faculty at The George Washington University School of Medicine, Dr. Travell retired as Emeritus and later Honorary Clinical Professor of Medicine. She continued to lecture and see patients in her office until 1996, when she moved to Northampton, MA with her daughter, Virginia. She died at her home there on August 1, 1997.
Lillian Gonzalez Pardo, MD, MHSA
Medical School: University of the Philippines College of Medicine, 1962
Specialty: Pediatric Neurology
Career Highlights:
- Professor Emerita in Pediatrics and Neurology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City KS
- Outstanding Asian-American, 2000, Asian American Chamber of Commerce, Washington DC
- Citizen of the World, 2001,United Nations Association of Greater Kansas City
- One of 100 Outstanding Filipina Women in the USA, 2009, Filipina Women’s Network, San Francisco CA
Service with AMWA: President 1991-1992; Executive Board Member; Strategic Planning Committee Co-Chair; Student Activities National Director; Student Loans & Fellowship Committee Chair; National Secretary; Midwest Region VIII – Regional Governor; Midwest Regional Conference Chair; State Director for Missouri; Kansas City Chapter President; multiple committeess
Biography:
Dr. Lillian Gonzalez Pardo was the first Asian American President of AMWA in 1991-1992. She followed an equally historic year after the first African American president of AMWA, Dr. Roselyn Payne Epps in 1990-1991. As she rose through the ranks in AMWA, she valued all those years that she considered her presidency a highlight of her professional life. She traveled extensively during her tenure in AMWA representing the organization at the Pan-American Medical Women’s Association meeting in Guatemala, the Global Forum for Women in Dublin, Ireland and even appeared before a congressional committee hearing during the elder Bush presidency to protect free speech in Title IX clinics.
Dr. Pardo was born and raised in Manila, Philippines. She earned her medical degree from the University of the Philippines, came to the University of Kansas Medical Center to pursue a career in neurology, later specializing in pediatric neurology. She also earned a degree in Masters In Health Care Administration at the University of Kansas while a full time faculty. She rose through the ranks in academia, culminating in a Clinical Professor rank. Upon her retirement from the University in 2006, she was awarded Emeritus Professorship honor in Neurology and Pediatrics.
For the past ten years, Dr. Pardo has participated in volunteer medical mission work to different regions in the Philippines. She leads a professional group of forty physicians, nurses and friends, primarily based in Kansas City for this annual activity. Other volunteer work involves cultural programs of the Filipino Association in Greater Kansas City where she serves as the Executive Director of their Dance Troupe-celebrating its 40th year in 2012. She is also a member of Zonta International, a service organization of business and executive women whose goal is to improve the status of women worldwide. As a Board member of the United Nations Association of Greater Kansas City, she is also involved in local projects to spread the work on the United Nation’s activities globally, such as the UNICEF and the World Food Program among others.
Married to a psychiatrist since 1964, she says she has good mental health coverage. They dote on five grandchildren, who all live in California, so they visit the west coast often for significant milestones of the children’s lives.
Suzanne Leonard Harrison, MD, FAAFP, FAMWA
Medical School: University of Washington School of Medicine, 1990
Specialty: Family Medicine
Career Highlights:
- Associate Professor and Director of Family Medicine Education, Dept. of Family Medicine & Rural Health, Florida State University College of Medicine
- Hippocratic Award, 2010, “For Best Representing the Ideals of Hippocrates in Professionalism, Compassionate Patient Care, and Inspirational Teaching”
- Guardian of the Mission Award, 2009, presented by peers at FSU for “Advancing the Mission of the College of Medicine”
- Faculty Member of the Year, 2008, “In recognition of your commitment and dedication to the students of FSU College of Medicine”
Service with AMWA: Board of Directors, 2011-present; Physicians Against the Trafficking of Humans (PATH), Co-Chair, 2012-present; Fellowship Committee, 2013-present; Mentorship Committee, 2013-present; Gender Equity Task Force, 2012-present; Program Committee, 2012 Annual Conference
Quote: One must always remember that we know nothing of the struggles faced by others – unless we ask.
Biography:
Suzanne Leonard Harrison is dedicated to teaching students to be the very best patient-centered physicians through clinical teaching, mentoring and being a role model in the care of those with limited access to medical care. She began her journey at the University Of Washington School Of Medicine and then chose a career in Family Medicine because it offered the best opportunity to serve her community and those in greatest need. Once she completed residency training, she joined her father’s family physician in private practice in Walla Walla, Washington, a rural community in the southeast corner of the state. In that setting she offered the full spectrum of family medicine to her patients, including obstetrics. She was active in the community, serving on the child sexual assault team and providing free care to victims of domestic violence. Dr. Harrison continued her journey with a new dedication to sharing her ideals and values regarding patient-centered care and community service with medical students and residents. She is currently an Associate Professor and the Education Director for Family Medicine at Florida State University College of Medicine. In this role, she has been honored several times by faculty, students, and community members for her dedication to service and teaching.
Dr. Harrison was first involved with AMWA as a medical student, but like so many, let her membership lapse as medical training and family took more and more of her time. She became active again after joining the faculty at FSU College of Medicine, serving as the faculty advisor for the local student branch since 2006. She has encouraged medical students to take an active role at the national level and has been on the Board of Directors since 2011. Dr. Harrison was one of the founding chairs of the anti-trafficking committee, now called Physicians Against the Trafficking of Humans (PATH) and was the lead author on the AMWA Position Paper on the Sex Trafficking of Women and Girls in the United States.
Rosalie Slaughter Morton
Medical School: Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania
Specialty: Gynecology
Career Highlights:
- 1909 – Dr. Rosalie Slaughter Morton was the first chair of the Public Health Education Committee of the American Medical Association.
- 1912 – Dr. Morton was one of the first women faculty members at the New York Polyclinic Hospital and Post-Graduate Medical School.
- 1916 – Dr. Morton was the first woman faculty member at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.
- 1917 – Dr. Morton was appointed chairman of the War Service Committee of the Medical Women’s National Association.
Service with AMWA: Chair of the War Service Committee in the Medical Women’s National Association (subsequently, AMWA) where she raised support for the American Women’s Hospital
Quote: “International and cooperative peace will dawn upon the earth when every life is accorded value for survival instead of applause for extinction.” (A Woman Surgeon 355)
Biography:
A pioneer in medicine and advocate of gender equality in healthcare, Dr. Rosalie Slaughter Morton was born on November 28, 1872, in Lynchburg, Virginia. Coming from a wealthy family with a long-standing history of male physicians, Dr. Morton faced opposition from her own family when she decided to pursue a medical career. She was expected to follow the norm for well-bred females of her day by marrying and raising a family. “My entire upbringing and education had been designed, as it was for all Southern girls, to make me a capable wife—not to imbue me with a desire for a career.” Dr. Morton joined the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1893, and graduated four years later with the top two honors in her class. After completing her residency at Alumnae Hospital and Dispensary, she left the United States to practice medicine internationally.
Dr. Morton completed post doctorate work studying under renowned physicians in Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and London. She also collaborated with the British Laboratory in India devising treatments against bubonic plague. Upon her return to the United States in 1902, she established a successful gynecological practice in Washington D.C. After marrying attorney George Morton, she moved her practice to New York where she became a faculty member at the New York Polyclinic Hospital and Post-Graduate Medical School in the gynecology department. In 1916, she became the first female faculty member in the surgical department at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
During the First World War, Dr. Morton dedicated her services to treating wounded soldiers. In 1916, the Red Cross appointed her as the Special Commissioner giving her the task of organizing transport of hospital supplies from Paris to the war front. Upon her return to the United States, Dr. Morton used the experience she gained in field hospital management to open the American Women’s Hospital program in Europe. After joining the Medical Women’s National Association, Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen, president, appointed Dr. Morton chairman of the War Service Committee. In this capacity Dr. Morton went on to collect support for the first American Women’s Hospital which opened in France in 1918.
After World War I ended, Dr. Morton continued her work of helping and educating men and women in war-torn European countries such as Yugoslavia and Serbia. She believed that international health, defined as freedom from disease, was a commanding goal of the post-war world. She put this belief into action through engagement in the International Serbian Educational Committee and a disease prevention project sponsored by the American Medical Association. Because of her wartime experiences and expertise, and her belief in the primacy of global public health, Dr. Morton became the first chair of the Public Health Education Committee of the American Medical Association.
After a stellar career that touched so many lives across the globe, Dr. Morton passed away at age 96 in 1968.
Eleni Tousimis, MD, FACS
Medical School: Albany Medical College, graduated 1996
Specialty: General Surgery, Breast Surgical Oncology
Career Highlights:
Service with AMWA: President, 2013-2014; Chair Breast Cancer Task Force 2013-2015; President elect, 2012-2013
Biography:
Dr. Eleni Tousimis is a board-certified General Surgeon who is a nationally renown specialist in breast cancer surgery. She recently joined Medstar Georgetown University Hospital, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center as the Director of the Ourisman Breast Center, Chief of the Division of Breast Surgery and Fellowship Director of the Breast Oncology Fellowship in Washington D.C. Dr. Tousimis attended Dartmouth and Mount Holyoke College where she graduated cum laude. She then received her medical degree from Albany Medical College. Following her breast surgery fellowship training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, she completed additional specialty training in minimally invasive surgery of the breast at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy. Dr. Tousimis was previously Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York-Presbyterian Hospital and served as Associate Program Director of Surgical Education. She has been recognized for her pursuit of new initiatives in breast cancer management, including nipple-sparing mastectomy, partial breast radiation, and new anesthetic techniques for breast surgery. As a well-respected clinician, researcher, and teacher, Dr. Tousimis holds a variety of leadership positions in several professional societies. She was the 99th President of the American Medical Women’s Association and acted as Section Editor of the Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Journal. She has been recognized as one of Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors, Top Surgeons and Best Doctors in 2009-present. She has received numerous awards including an Achievement Award from the City of New York for her surgical skill, compassion, and service as well as the Kalopthakis Award, which recognizes the contributions of female physicians.
Connie B. Newman, MD, FAMWA
Medical School: Weill Cornell Medical College, class of 1978
Specialty: Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism
Career Highlights:
- Expert author and speaker on statin safety and statin intolerance, lipid management, and large randomized trials of statins; co-author of 2015 European Atherosclerosis Society Consensus Statement on Statin-Associated Muscle Symptoms
- Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, New York University School of Medicine; Academic Visitor, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford (UK)
- Formerly Head, Cardiovascular Regulatory Affairs, at Pfizer; led a global team responsible for regulatory strategy and regulatory interactions for investigational and approved medicines for dyslipidemia, venous thrombosis, and cardiovascular disease, including atorvastatin
- Founder and Leader, “Wellesley Women in Medicine”, a group connecting Wellesley College students and alumnae with an interest in a medical career with each other and with Wellesley educated physicians
- AMWA President 2018-2019
Service with AMWA: AMWA President 2018-2019; Board of Directors 2015-present; Co-Chair, Fellowship Program Task Force, 2014-present; Preventive Medicine Task Force and Lead of Obesity Subgroup 2013-present; Co-Chair, JAMWA Committee, 2014-present; Member, American Women’s Hospitals Service 2012-present; Co-Chair Centennial Gala Subcommittee 2014-present; Founding Sponsor Physicians Against Human Trafficking Website; Member, Physicians Against Human Trafficking 2012-present; AMWA liaison to Planned Parenthood National Medical Committee 2014-present; AMWA liaison to STOP Obesity Alliance, 2015-present
Quote: I am committed to advancing public health through education, research and disease prevention. As a woman physician who entered the medical field when so few women were doctors, I am also committed to helping other women doctors, and aspiring doctors, in their journey to and through medicine.
Biography:
Dr. Connie Newman is a board-certified endocrinologist and expert on statin safety and intolerance, lipid management, and large randomized trials evaluating the effects of statins on cardiovascular disease. She publishes and lectures on these topics. Dr. Newman is a member of the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration and co-author of the meta-analysis of cancer in 170,000 participants in 27 statin trials. She is also a co-author of the 2015 European Atherosclerosis Society Statement, “Statin-Associated Muscle Symptoms: Impact on Statin Therapy”.
Her interests also include obesity, and vitamin D. She has been a member of the Steering Committee of BEST-D, a trial evaluating higher doses of vitamin D in the elderly, and CARDS (Collaborative Atorvastatin Diabetes Study), one of the first cardiovascular outcomes trials that showed that statins reduce MI and stroke in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Newman is a graduate of Wellesley College and Weill Cornell Medical College. She has been a faculty member of New York University Medical School since 1984 and was awarded tenure in 1994. In 1998 she joined the pharmaceutical industry and rose to Executive Director, Head of Cardiovascular Regulatory Affairs at Pfizer where she worked until 2007. She is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine and Academic Visitor at University of Oxford (United Kingdom), Nuffield Department of Population Health.
Dr. Newman is the 2018-2019 President of AMWA. She joined the Board of Directors in 2015. She also continues to be active in the Endocrine Society and serves as Chair of the Special Programs Committee, which develops CME programs on obesity and other diseases. She is a member of the Women’s Leadership Committee of the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB) Council of the American Heart Association.
Dr. Newman was inspired to become a physician by her neighbor, Dr. Laura Morrow, who was President of AMWA in 1968-1969. Throughout her career Dr. Newman has mentored women medical students and young doctors. In 2011 she founded the Wellesley Women in Medicine shared interest group in order to connect Wellesley College students and young alumnae interested in medicine with doctors. The group has more than 500 members.
Dr. Newman is married to Dr. Jonathan Tobert and has three children.
Sarwat Malik, MD, FACP
Medical School: Fatima Jinnah Medical College, 1965
Specialty: Internal Medicine
Career Highlights:
- Founding President of AMWAR – American Medical Women’s Association of Rochester (NY)
- Founding President of Fatima Jinnah Medical College North American alumni chapter
- Co-Founder, Global Partnership for Women and Girls
- Awarded Women’s eNews 21 Women for the 21st Century Award in 2010
Service with AMWA: Founder, MWAR — Medical Women’s Association of Rochester, Branch 65
Quote: Feminist in my vocabulary, means one who advocates for the rights of women justly and judiciously. When women are strong, so are their families, communities and countries. Empowered women create peace as they engage with both their Muslim and non Muslim neighbors. In the United States, I have found the freedom to speak up for my rights and the rights of others without any fear or repercussions. I’d like to see every woman empowered in a way that she feels that she has the dignity, respect, human rights and desire to do something positive in the world.
Biography:
Sarwat Malik, M.D., FACP, was born in Pakistan and graduated from Fatima Jinnah Medical College in 1965. Dr. Malik specialized in Internal Medicine and went on to practice for 35 years in the Rochester, New York, area. Dr. Malik was the Founding President of both the American Medical Women’s Association of Rochester, Branch 65, and the Fatima Jinnah Medical College North American alumni chapter. She also helped create the Global Partnership for Women and Girls that promotes the educational and economic advancement of Muslim women and girls.
Growing up in Pakistan at a time when most women stayed at home, Dr. Malik’s parent’s encouraged her to strive and succeed. She graduated from high school at the age of 15 and entered medical school. The supportive environment there sheltered Dr. Malik from the discrimination and hardships that other Muslim women faced.
As an adult living in the United States, Dr. Malik was a passionate advocate for the advancement of Muslim women and girls, and fought for equality and social justice—including equal pay for women physicians—not only through her words but through her actions and organizational affiliations. She helped countless patients, mentored students and residents, and was a beloved and respected member of her community.
After being diagnosed with stage four metastatic lung cancer in 2007, Dr. Malik retired from her practice to focus on her healing and the development of the Global Partnership for Women and Girls. Dr. Malik is survived by her husband of 47 years, Dr. Salahuddin Malik, and her two daughters Sumaiya Malik Wood and Nadia Malik.
When asked about her commitment to women’s health, wellbeing, and agency, Dr. Malik said, “Feminist, in my vocabulary, means one who advocates for the rights of women justly and judiciously. When women are strong, so are their families, communities and countries. Empowered women create peace as they engage with both their Muslim and non-Muslim neighbors. In the United States, I have found the freedom to speak up for my rights and the rights of others without any fear of repercussions. I’d like to see every woman empowered in a way that she feels that she has the dignity, respect, human rights, and desire to do something positive in the world.”
For Dr. Malik’s lifetime service to women, she was commemorated with the Women’s e-News “21 Women for the 21st Century” Award in 2010.
Dr. Olga Stastny
Medical School: University of Nebraska Medical School, 1913
Specialty: Obstetrics, Anesthesiology
Career Highlights:
- Emeritus Professor, University of Nebraska College of Medicine
- Chair, Department of Hygiene and Social Service in Prague
- Medical Director AWH units in Loutraki and Macronissi Islands (Greece)
- Chairman, Health Department of the YMCA (Czechoslovakia)
Service with AMWA: President 1930-1931, First Vice-President, Treasurer, Medical Director AWH units in Loutraki and Macronissi Islands (Greece), Delegate at 1925 International AMWA Conference
Quote: (on her desire to participate help in the war effort in 1918) “I want to get to France, even if I have to scrub floors.”1
Biography:
Olga Stastny was born in Nebraska, the second of eight children born to Czechoslovakian parents Francis and Teresa Sadilek. In 1895, she married Charles Stastny, who became a dentist. The couple dreamed of pursuing medical studies, but Charles died at age 28, leaving her to raise their two children alone. Olga later enrolled in the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, graduating in 1913 as the only woman in her class. After an obstetrical internship at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, she returned to Nebraska to practice. She became an active member of the Medical Women’s National Association (later renamed AMWA) and worked to promote equal opportunity for women physicians.
At the advent WWI, Dr. Stastny was a fervent supporter of the war efforts. She joined the American Women’s Hospitals (AWH), a relief agency founded by AMWA and helped organize the Americanization Department of the Nebraska Council of Defense. In 1919, she joined AWH Unit #1 in France to aid the reconstruction efforts. For her service, the French government awarded her the Medaille de Reconnaissance . Dr. Stastny later relocated to Czechoslovakia to serve as chair of the Department of Hygiene and Social Service in Prague. There, she established a child welfare station, campaigned against tuberculosis, and lectured extensively on preventive medicine and sexual hygiene. She continued her work in health prevention programs until the death of her son Robert, after which she returned to the U.S. to grieve her loss.
Dr. Statsny would work abroad again as medical director of the AWH units in Loutraki and Macronissi Islands in Greece, where she coordinated care for thousands of Greek refugees from the Near East. She received the Cross of Saint George from the Grecian government for her heroic work, despite dangerous and desperate conditions. Back in the U.S., Dr. Statsny continued her involvement in AMWA and was a delegate to the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA). In 1931, she received the Noguchi Gold Medal for her work in preventive medicine; in 1948, she became professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine. She served as trustee of Doane College (Crete) and the University of Nebraska Foundation and remained an active volunteer until her death at the age of 74.
Photo Courtesy of Drexel University, School of Medicine, Archives & Special Collections
References:
1 “Omaha’s Grandmother Doctor Awaits Her Call.” Omaha World-Herald, 1918, in Olga Stastny
Collection, State Archives, Nebraska State Historical Society.
Andrews-Koryta, S. “Dr. Olga Stastny, Her Service to Nebraska and the World.” Nebraska
History 68 (1987): 20-27.
Dr. Nellie O. Barsness
Medical School: University of Minnesota Medical School, 1902
Specialty: Ophthalmology
Career Highlights:
- State Health Director for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union
- Physician for the State Reformatory for Women at Shakopee
- Worked as an opthalmologist with the French Army in World War I through the Women’s Oversea Hospitals
Service with AMWA: Regional Director for the Northwest Central region of AMWA, President of the Minnesota Branch
Biography:
Dr. Nellie O. Barsness was a pioneer in more ways than one. Not only was she one of the first women physicians in Minnesota, but also her family was amongst the first of Norwegian settlers in western Minnesota. Her father, after serving in the Union Army in the Civil War, took up a homestead south of Glenwood, in Pope County. Dr. Barsness was born in Barsness Township, the township named for the family.
After teaching school for a few years, she entered the University of Minnesota Medical School, and received her medical degree in 1902. She interned at Luther Hospital in St. Paul. At about this time the first x-ray machines were being used. Dr. Barsness lost no time in learning to operate one, and she attended the first x-ray conferences ever held, at Niagara Falls in 1904.
In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, women physicians were not accepted in the Medical Corps; but they were in the French Army. Dr. Barsness was appointed ophthalmologist at a hospital in Cempuis (with the Women’s Oversea Hospitals) where gassed solders were treated. She was decorated by the French Minister of War for her work done under the most hazardous of conditions. After the armistice, to give respite to the French doctors who had worked so hard during the four years of war, Dr. Barsness conducted clinics in Nancy and in Rheims.
Returning to St. Paul late in 1919, she was physician for the State Reformatory for Women at Shakopee. For several years, Dr. Barsness was State Health Director for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and helped to stimulate greater interest in health measures throughout the State.
She took on postgraduate work in Berlin, Vienna, New York, and Chicago. Her studies included otolaryngology, ophthalmology, and dermatology, and she made good use of those specialties in her general practice.
Dr. Barsness was past Regional Director for the Northwest Central region of AMWA and past president of the Minnesota Branch. Through her labors and her triumphs, younger generations of women physicians have been inspired. Her accomplishments stimulate and encourage progressive interest for young and old alike; her honors reflect honor on all women physicians.
Adapted from Bernard MT, “Nellie O. Barsness, M.D.” JAMWA April 1953, p. 151.
Photo Courtesy of Drexel University School of Medicine, Archives and Special Collections.
Faces of AMWA Nomination
Faces of AMWA Credits
Project Co-Directors
- Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH
- Ashley Styczynski, MD, MPH
Past Project Co-Directors
- Laura Hudgings, MD
- Katherine He
Original Design
Joe Hadley, Blair Dubilier & Associates
Research and Editing
- Jamie Hum
- Claudia Morrissey
- Marissa Orenstein
- Alyssa Park
- Parin Patel
- Misty Richards
- Mary Becker Rysavy
- Sukhmeet Sandhu
- Ryan Smith
Questions? Contact [email protected].
Special Thanks
Special Thanks go to Patricia Tuohy, Head of Exhibitions, National Library of Medicine
The idea for this exhibition was conceived during the AMWA Interim Meeting of 2009. On a visit to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, I was inspired by an interactive exhibit on American heroes – a montage of faces floating across the screen, which when touched, would pause to reveal the story behind the photograph. I thought of AMWA and the extraordinary women physicians who have led this organization over the past century – and the need for their stories to be shared.
Three years later, in 2012, we were proud to launch Faces of AMWA, a celebration of the past, present, and future of women leaders in medicine. We are deeply grateful for the volunteer researchers who have helped and continue to help with the biographical documentation of early AMWA physicians and to Joe Hadley for the development and design of the exhibition.
Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH
AMWA Executive Director and Past President
Founder and Co-Director, Faces of AMWA