Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil., is the Lawrence W. Davis Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology and a Senior Faculty Fellow in the Center for Ethics at Emory University.  Dr. Jagsi has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, Association of American Physicians, and American Society of Clinical Investigation in recognition of her work to promote equity in health outcomes of patients and in career outcomes of physicians, specifically focusing on women.  Author of over 450 publications including high-impact studies in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and the Lancet, she is PI of multiple NIH grants, including two active R01s and a U54.  A radiation oncologist who cares for patients with breast cancer, she is a fellow of the AAAS, ASCO, ASTRO, AAWR, and the Hastings Center.

Dr. Mary Lake Polan is former chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Stanford Medical School (1990-2006) and is currently Professor of Clinical Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale Medical School. She specializes in reproductive endocrinology and infertility and hormonal issues related to gynecology patients and menopause.  She received her BA from Connecticut College, a PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and MD from Yale University. She completed her residency and Reproductive Endocrine Fellowship at Yale. Dr. Polan received her MPH (Maternal and Child Health Program) from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Polan’s research has involved ovarian and urologic function with publications in both areas. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has served on both NIH and university committees. She has a long-standing interest in women’s health research and has been actively involved in international public health. While at Stanford, she initiated The Eritrean Women’s Project in 2001 and has maintained this surgical project in Eritrea to repair fistulas resulting from traumatic births. Recently, she has been interested in the biologic basis of healthy longevity and executive produced an award-winning short documentary, BELOW SURFACE, screened at 17 film festivals, which highlights the stories of a multicultural, multigenerational YMCA Aquafit class demonstrating how kindness and community, combined with exercise, supports longevity.

Nancy Spector, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics and serves at the Drexel University College of Medicine (DUCOM) as Executive Director of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) program, a part-time year-long, national leadership fellowship program for women in academic medicine, dentistry, public health, and pharmacy and as Executive Director of the Executive Leadership in Health Care (ELH) program for women leaders in hospital and health care systems. In addition to these roles, she serves as Senior Vice Dean for Faculty, the Betty A. Cohen Chair in Women’s Health, and Executive Director of the Lynn Yeakel Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership (IWHL).

Known for her leadership and facilitation skills, Dr. Spector is sought after as a speaker and visiting professor. Her contributions to academic medicine are in leadership skills development, professional development, gender equity, mentoring and sponsorship, and curriculum development and implementation. She is a member of PROWD (Promoting and Respecting Our Women Doctors). In addition to her roles at DUCOM, she has been the educational leader of the I-PASS Handoff Study Group, serves as Chair of the I-PASS Executive Council, and is a co-founder of the I-PASS Safety Institute.

Dr. Spector is a graduate of Brown University and the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  She completed her residency, Chief Residency, and General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Dr. Spector was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and is member of the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Pediatric Society.  She has received numerous awards for teaching, mentoring and innovation including the Robert S. Holm Award for her extraordinary contribution in pediatric program director leadership and mentorship from the Association of Pediatric Program Directors, the Elias Abrutyn Mentoring Award from DUCOM, the Miller Sarkin Mentoring Award from the Academic Pediatric Association, the Elizabeth Bingham Award from the Association for Women in Science, Philadelphia chapter, the Women in Medicine Summit She for She Award, the American Medical Association Inspiration Award, and the Association of American Medical Colleges GWIMS Leadership Award for an Individual. The I-PASS Study group that she leads was an HBS/HMS health acceleration challenge finalist and received the Cox Award. The I-PASS Handoff Program received the John M. Eisenberg National Patient Safety and Quality Award, Joint Commission and National Quality Forum.

She has been invited to join numerous leadership efforts at organizations including American Women’s Medical Association (AMWA), Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Gender Equity in academic Medicine and Science (GEMS) Alliance, Center for Women in Academic Medicine and Science (CWAMS), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Women’s Wellness through Equity and Leadership (WEL) project (partner organizations are American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), American College of Physicians (ACP), American Hospital Association (AHA), American Medical Association (AMA), AMWA, American Psychiatric Association (APA), National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA), National Medical Association (NMA)), the Society of Hospital Medicine, the ACP, and the MAVEN Leadership Training Initiative. Dr. Spector’s scholarly focus includes a broad range of educational topics including mentoring and sponsorship, gender equity, professional development planning, the I-PASS Handoff Program, and electronic professionalism. She is the co-editor of two books and has more than 115 publications to her credit.

Julie K. Silver, MD
Associate Professor
Associate Chair
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Harvard Medical School
Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospitals

Julie K. Silver, MD is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Silver has held numerous leadership positions and is a former start-up company founder. She was named the Top Innovator in Medicine in 2012 by The Boston Globe, and the same year her start-up company was listed by Bloomberg/Businessweek as one of the most promising social enterprise companies.

Dr. Silver’s research and clinical work has focused on improving gaps in the delivery of healthcare services. She has published many scientific reports and is well-known for her ground-breaking work on “impairment-driven cancer rehabilitation” which was initially published in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians–a high impact factor oncology journal that is published by the American Cancer Society. Impairment-driven cancer rehabilitation was subsequently incorporated into the American Cancer Society’s Facts & Figures. Dr. Silver co-founded the Cancer Rehabilitation Group for the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine—a research focused interdisciplinary professional society. She has been a subject matter expert in cancer rehabilitation and prehabilitation for the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and American College of Sports Medicine. Recently, Dr. Silver was the technical lead for a workgroup convened by the World Health Organization that focused on clinical practices guidelines for cancer rehabilitation. Dr. Silver also developed a best practices model for cancer rehabilitation care that hundreds of U.S. hospitals adopted. In 2020, Dr. Silver helped to establish one of the first post-COVID rehabilitation programs in the United States during the first wave of the pandemic. She has co-authored numerous reports on issues related to the COVID-19 global pandemic and Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS CoV-2 Infection (PASC), including guidance statements published by the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation’s PASC Collaborative.

Dr. Silver received the prestigious Walter J. Zeiter Award and Lectureship in 2021 and the year before she received the Distinguished Public Service Award from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation for her cross-cutting work on workforce and patient care disparities with an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dr. Silver has published many studies and reports in high-impact journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The BMJ, and multiple JAMA Network journals. Her work cuts across all specialties, and she has published reports in many specialty journals including PM&R, American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Dermatology, Pediatrics, Neurology, Anesthesia and Analgesia, Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia, and The Journal of Infectious Diseases. As a nationally recognized expert, Dr. Silver has been invited to give keynotes and workshops at the American Psychiatric Association, American Association for Clinical Endocrinologists, American Academy of Neurology, Infectious Disease Society of America, American College of Cardiology, Pediatric Hospital Medicine, and numerous other medical societies. Dr. Silver has also been an integral part of the development of the Spaulding Research Institute.

Dr. Silver has also authored/edited many books, including the Essentials of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation which is now in its 4^th edition and Easy EMG which is in its 3^rd edition. She has led numerous high impact national strategic initiatives such as the Give Her A Reason To Stay in Healthcare Campaign, Her Time Is Now Campaign, Be Ethical Campaign, Need Her Science Campaign, and the Walls Do Talk Challenge. She directs the Harvard Medical School CME accredited course titled Career Advancement and Leadership Skills for Women in Healthcare—that has trained thousands of physicians and other healthcare leaders throughout the U.S. and internationally.

Dr. Silver’s work has been featured in many media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The London Times and NPR. She has also appeared on numerous TV shows including the CBS Early Show, The Today Show, Fox News, and ABC News.

Darilyn V. Moyer, MD, FACP is the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the American College of Physicians (ACP).

Board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases, Dr. Moyer has been a Fellow of  ACP (FACP) since 2007. FACP is an honorary designation that recognizes ongoing individual service and contributions to the practice of medicine. She has served on ACP’s Board of Regents, which manages the business and affairs of ACP and is the main policy-making body of the College, chaired ACP’s Board of Governors, and served as Governor of ACP’s Pennsylvania Southeastern Chapter. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Council of Medical Subspecialty Societies and is the President-elect, and is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative. Dr. Moyer is a member of Women of Impact and is the 2020 Recipient of the American Medical Women’s Association Elizabeth Blackwell Award, as well as the recipient of the 2020 Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University Alumni Achievement Award.

Prior to becoming ACP’s EVP and CEO, Dr. Moyer was a Professor of Medicine, Executive Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Medicine, Internal Medicine Residency Program Director and Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. She was previously the Co-Faculty Advisor for the Temple University School of Medicine Internal Medicine Interest Group and for the Temple University School of Medicine Student Educating About Healthcare Policy Group. She received the Temple University School of Medicine Women in Medicine Mentoring Award in 2012.

Dr. Moyer’s research and scholarly activity interests and presentations have been in the areas of medical education, high value care, patient safety, professionalism and digital media, gender equity, and HIV/infectious diseases.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in the Biological Basis of Behavior, Biology and Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and attended medical school at Temple University School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at Temple University Hospital and served as a Chief Resident/Clinical Instructor of Medicine. She went on to complete an Infectious DiseasesFellowship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. Dr. Moyer currently practices part time at the Temple University Internal Medicine Associates

As the Chief Academic Officer of the Florida State University College of Medicine, Alma Littles, MD has overall responsibility for overseeing the design, development, implementation and evaluation of the four-year comprehensive curriculum leading to the M.D. degree. In 2002, Littles became founding chair of the Florida State University College of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health and in 2003 was appointed to her current position of senior associate dean for medical education and academic affairs. Her role also included leadership over the development of the College of Medicine’s first sponsored residency programs. She has been instrumental in the COM’s accreditation efforts since the creation of the school.

Dr. Littles graduated from the University of Florida College of Medicine and the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (TMH) Family Medicine Residency Program. A statewide and national leader in organized medicine, she has been involved in medical education since 1989, when she began teaching medical students and residents in her solo family practice in Quincy, Florida. She joined the faculty of the Family Medicine Residency Program at TMH in 1996, and became director in 1999. A former president of the Florida Academy of Family Physicians (FAFP)and 1993 Florida Family Physician of the Year, she is also a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Medical Association, Florida Medical Association (FMA), Capital Medical Society (CMS), and Florida Alliance for Health Professions Diversity. She was the 2016-17 Chair of the TMH Board of Directors, and currently serves as Delegate to the AMA from its Academic Physicians Section. Dr. Littles was named one of the 25 Women You Need to Know in Tallahassee in 2010, and in 2014, was identified by Black Health Magazine as one of the country’s Top 15 Most Influential African American Medical Educators. She also received the 2014 Outstanding Physician of the Year Award from Capital Medical Society. She received the Director’s Award for Outstanding Faculty, and was honored with the 2019 AMWA’s Elizabeth Blackwell Award.

Dr. Littles is a long-time patient advocate and has always recognized the importance of being a part of and giving back to the community. She has an interest in promoting student and physician wellness and addressing ways to prevent burnout. She serves on the Wellness Committees of the CMS and FAFP and chaired the FMA’s Wellness Committee in 2019-20. She also served as Vice-Chair of Florida’s Physicians Workforce Advisory Council (chaired by the State Surgeon General) for eight years and is a contributing author to the textbook, “Contemporary Challenges in Medical Education’, published in 2019. She continues to advocate for quality health care for citizens in rural communities and fully understands the need to recruit students from rural and other underserved populations to pursue the medical profession. Her mission is to inspire doctors to practice in areas where people are most in need of health care, particularly in rural areas and in the area of primary care and preventive medicine.

On a personal note, Dr. Littles serves as secretary of Shiloh P. B. Church in Quincy, FL. She is married to Mr. Gentle Littles, III and has one son, Gentle Germaine Littles.

Michele Barry, MD, FACP, FASTMH is the Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson Professor of Medicine and Tropical Diseases at Stanford University. She is the Director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health and Senior Dean for Global Health. As one of the co-founders of the Stanford/Yale Global Health Scholars Program she has sent over 1500 physicians overseas to underserved areas to help strengthen health infrastructure in low resource settings. As a past President of the ASTMH, she led an educational initiative in tropical medicine and travelers health which culminated in diploma courses in tropical medicine both in the U.S. and overseas. Dr. Barry is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Council for Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been selected for Best Doctors in America and is also the 2018 recipient of AMWA’s award – the Elizabeth Blackwell medal for creating pathways for women in medicine. An avid supporter of women leadership globally she is the founder of WomenLift Health, a Gates funded leadership initiative for women which aims to put 3500 women into CEO or leadership positions in the public or private sector of the global health workforce over 10 years She is also the current chair of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, a consortium of 172 universities in the US and overseas working in global health. Scholarly interests include but are not limited to tropical diseases, ethics of research done overseas, human and planetary health and equitable partnerships overseas.

Marjorie R. Jenkins, MD, MEdHP, FACP serves as Dean and Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine Greenville, and Associate Provost, University of South Carolina. She also holds the position Chief Academic Officer for Prisma Health—Upstate. Past leadership roles include Director of Medical Initiatives and Scientific Engagement at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health (OWH); Graduate Research Program Director, Master of Education for Health Professions at Johns Hopkins University’s College of Education; and Professor of Internal Medicine and Founding Director and Chief Scientific Officer for the Laura W. Bush Institute at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

Dr. Jenkins has served in many national roles, such as expert panel member, content writer, consultant, and program grant reviewer for national organizations including HRSA, NIH, NASA, and NBME. She has authored multiple scientific works, including leading the development of a recently published sex and gender medicine textbook, and has received national awards in recognition of her leadership, advocacy, and scientific expertise, including the 2017 AMWA Elizabeth Blackwell Award.

Padmini (Mini) Murthy, MD, MPH is Professor and Global Health Director at New York Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice. Dr. Murthy is a physician and an activist who trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has practiced medicine and public health for the past 28 years in various countries. She has been working in various arenas of the health care industry. And worked as consultant for UNFPA. She received a MPH and MS in Management from New York University. Dr. Murthy currently serves as the Secretary General of the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) and its NGO representative to the United Nations (UN). She is global health lead for the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA).

Dr. Murthy is widely published and is the author and editor of Women’s Global Health and Human Rights (Jones and Bartlett, 2010) and Technology and Global Public Health (Springer, 2020), both of which are used as textbooks worldwide. She has made over 150 presentations on women’s and children’s health nationally and internationally in scientific conferences and at the United Nations and as an invited speaker around the world. She serves as a peer reviewer for several publications. Her book of poems Mini’s Musings was published in 2012 and her most recent book Glorious Global Ganesh was published in Dec 2020.

Dr. Murthy’s research interests focus on women’s health and human rights, social determinants of health, global health diplomacy, and promotion of global health with a focus on bridging inequities and promoting gender harmony. She is a sought after motivational speaker and has been invited to speak nationally and internationally on women’s health and emerging public health issues. Dr. Murthy has been working with UN ambassadors and missions to promote women’s health globally with local efforts.

Some of the projects she has worked on include safe motherhood and spearheading the procurement of PPE and medical equipment to serve communities in Grenada, Kenya, India, Malawi, and Nepal. Dr. Murthy has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards. She was the first American woman physician to receive the Jhirad Oration Award (in Seoul, Korea) conferred at an international conference in recognition of her service and work to MWIA. She has also been the recipient of the Sojourner Truth Pin which is given to those women who excel in community service. In June 2015, she was presented Millennium Milestone Maker Award at the 9th Annual Women’s Symposium at Sias University, China. In 2016, She was the first Indian born American in over 70 years to receive the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal from American Medical Women’s Association for her work in promoting women’s health globally. She is the recipient of the Lalita Pawar Memorial Award in 2016 conferred by the Association of Medical Women in India (Nagpur Branch) for her work in promoting women’s health and human rights.

In 2017, Dr. Murthy was conferred the prestigious Dr. Homi Colabawall Oration in Mumbai, India for her work on promoting women’s health. In 2018, she received a mentorship award from the Australian medical students and the Exceptional Woman of Excellence Award at the Women Economic Forum in New Delhi and an award for promoting human rights for women from the Taiwanese Medical Association at the International Health Literacy Conference. In March 2019, Dr. Murthy received for a second consecutive year, a mentorship award for mentoring Australian medical students from the Notre Dame University in Sydney, Australia.

In September 2019, Dr. Murthy received an award for outstanding contribution to women’s health from the Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria. In November 2019, Dr. Murthy received an award in recognition of her service to promote women’s health and well being from the Kenyan Medical Women’s Association. In July 2020, Dr. Murthy was the recipient of the Iconic Women Creating a Better World for All from the Women Economic Forum in India. In March 2021, Dr. Murthy will be awarded The Bertha Van Hoosen Award given to AMWA women physicians who have demonstrated excellent leadership and service to the association. Dr. Murthy currently serves as Chair of the International Health Section of the American Public Health Association, which is one of the largest associations of public health professionals in the world. She serves as the first Vice Chair of the Global NGO Executive Committee since August 2019.

Biography coming soon.

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.

Luanne Thorndyke, MD began as Executive Vice Dean of the Keck School of Medicine in July 2020, recruited to a newly established position to be the principal advisor to the Dean and to serve as a liaison, working collaboratively with chairs, senior leaders and administrators on behalf of the Dean to foster a collaborative culture among all academic entities to achieve mission-specific goals and objectives. The Executive Vice Dean was envisioned to play an important leadership and management role in all aspects of the medical school and in all areas of operation–clinical enterprise, leadership/development of staff and faculty, community engagement, and, importantly, the climate and culture of the school.

Prior to this, Thorndyke served for a decade as Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at the 3-school health sciences campus of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She led the Office of Faculty Affairs, and was integrally involved in all matters related to faculty, including academic affairs (recruitment, onboarding, appointment, promotion & tenure processes); campus governance and faculty committees; department and faculty reviews; faculty and leadership development; professionalism and misconduct issues; and diversity, gender and equity, including salary equity. She transformed the office such that it became the chief resource for faculty, chairs, and leaders on campus, nationally recognized among AAMC affiliated schools for innovative and impactful programs, policies and personnel—and a valuable resource for consultation and mentoring.

Thorndyke has created programs to foster faculty development, academic advancement, and leadership development, with a focus on advancement of women and faculty underrepresented in medicine. Thorndyke’s efforts enabled UMass to be one of only five medical schools nationally to receive a $250,000 grant for innovative work in career flexibility for academic faculty from the American Council on Education and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. UMMS and partnering institutions convened a national conference led by Dr. Thorndyke to accelerate the dissemination of successful strategies for faculty career flexibility. In academic affairs, Thorndyke led the revision of all major campus policy and governance documents, helped establish a regional campus at UMMS-Baystate with over 700 new faculty, and revised the Academic Personnel Policy to provide pathways for promotion and tenure that would recognize faculty contributing in all the mission areas.

Dr. Thorndyke has extensive experience in educational planning, program implementation, and accreditation standards. Early in her academic career, she was appointed Assistant Dean of Continuing Medical Education at the Penn State College of Medicine, responsible for post­ graduate educational programming for physicians, nurses, and allied health personnel. Under her leadership, the department provided over 220 physician education programs annually for over 22,000 registrants. She established the Consortium of Academic Continuing Medical Education (CACME), a multi school CME collaboration, which was the only collaboration of its kind in the United States. CACME was awarded a prestigious six-year accreditation with commendation from the ACCME. Thorndyke was promoted to Associate Dean for Professional Development, with expanded responsibilities for faculty professional development to recruit, sustain and retain faculty talent. In this role, she created the Penn State Jr. Faculty Development Program, which became a nationally recognized model for faculty development and mentoring, implemented in five academic medical schools across the country.

Thorndyke was elected Chair of the AAMC Group on Faculty Affairs (2012-13) and has received multiple awards. Scholarly interests include faculty and leadership development, mentoring, faculty engagement, resilience and vitality. She has published and presented nationally and internationally on these topics and is a highly sought-after speaker.

Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD, FACOG provides a valuable combination of experience at the highest levels of patient care and medical research, as well as organizational management and public health policy. Marrying her transformational leadership acumen and strategic thinking to tackle challenging management issues, she has a track record of redesigning complex organizations’ infrastructures to reflect the needs of evolving strategic environments and position the organization for success through sustainability tactics.

The sixth president of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) and the first woman to lead the freestanding medical institution, Montgomery Rice serves as both the president and dean. A renowned infertility specialist and researcher, she most recently served as dean and executive vice president of MSM, where she has served since 2011.

Prior to joining MSM, Montgomery Rice held faculty positions and leadership roles at various health centers, including academic health centers. Most notably, she was the founding director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at Meharry Medical College, one of the nation’s first research centers devoted to studying diseases that disproportionately impact women of color.

Dedicated to the creation and advancement of health equity, Montgomery Rice lends her vast experience and talents to programs that enhance pipeline opportunities for academically diverse learners, diversifies the physician and scientific workforce, and fosters equity in health care access and health outcomes. To this end, she holds memberships in various organizations and participates on a number of boards, such as the following: member, National Academy of Medicine, the Association of American Medical Colleges Council of Deans, and the Horatio Alger Association and board of directors for The Metro Atlanta Chamber, Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, The Nemours Foundation, UnitedHealth Group, Westside Future Fund, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, Headspace, Wellpath and CARE.

Montgomery Rice has received numerous accolades and honors. She was named to the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans and received the 2017 Horatio Alger Award. For three consecutive years (2016-2018) Georgia Trend Magazine selected Montgomery Rice as one of the 100 Most Influential Georgians. Other honors include the following: The Dean Griffin Community Service Award from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Girls Inc. 2019 Smart Award, The National Medical Association OB/GYN 2019 Legend of the Section Award, The Turknett Leadership Character Award (2018), Visions of Excellence Award, Atlanta Business League (2018), Links Incorporated Co-Founders Award (2018), Trumpet Vanguard Award (2015), The Dorothy I. Height Crystal Stair Award (2014), National Coalition of 100 Black Women – Women of Impact (2014), YWCA – Women of Achievement of Atlanta-(2014) and Nashville(2007), American Medical Women’s Association Elizabeth Blackwell Medal (2011) and Working Mother Media Multicultural Women’s Legacy Award (2011).

A Georgia native, Montgomery Rice holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a medical degree from Harvard Medical School, an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree from Rush University. All reflect her lifetime commitment to education, service, and the advancement of health equity. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Emory University School of Medicine and her fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Hutzel Hospital.

Montgomery Rice is married to her fellow Georgia Institute of Technology alumnus, Melvin Rice Jr., and they have two children: Jayne and Melvin III.

Linda Hawes Clever, MD, MACP is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, founding Chair of the Department of Occupational Health at California Pacific Medical Center, and former Editor of the Western Journal of Medicine, Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, Associate Dean for Alumni Affairs, Stanford University School of Medicine and Trustee of Stanford University. 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 andLife.

Dr. Clever received undergraduate and medical degrees fromStanford 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.

Biography coming soon.

Elinor Christiansen, MD was born in Peking, China in Nov. 1929 and moved with her family to Palo Alto, CA in 1938. She participated in all after school sports in Junior and Senior High School and won trophies in single and double tennis tournaments in the city park in the summers. She graduated from Pomona College in Claremont, CA in 1951 and graduated from Women’s Medical College (WMC) of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA (now Drexel University College of Medicine) with an M.D. in 1955.

She married Robert Christiansen, a chemical engineer, in CA in 1952 and he left his job with Shell Development to join her in Philadelphia and earn his PhD while she was earning her MD.

After a twelve month rotating internship in Columbus, OH she jumped into private practice and worked as a GP in Granville, OH 30 miles east of Columbus doing everything, including delivering babies, making house calls, and assisting the surgeon at the hospital in Newark,OH.

In 1959 Elinor and Bob moved to Denver, CO when Bob changed jobs. While their two sons were pre-school Elinor worked part-time for Denver Health inner city Maternal and Child health clinics. When her children reached school age she worked as physician at Colorado Women’s College until it closed. Next she worked as physician at University of Denver Student Health Service nearly 20 years, serving as the Medical Director her last nine years and retiring in 1985. During her Student Health years she served as president of the state and regional College Health Association.

In 1960 she became active in Branch 47 of the American Medical Women’s Association, became Branch president, and organized regional conferences. She served as treasurer of the national AMWA and later served as national AMWA President 2002-2003.

In 2000 Elinor became primary care physician and also Medical Director of two rural clinics in the underserved mountains west of Denver: Black Hawk and Nederland, where a majority of the patients had no health insurance. She retired for the second time in 2002.

Following her second retirement, she interviewed medical school applicants as a volunteer for the Admissions Committee at University of Colorado School of Medicine. After 35 years as a volunteer interviewer she retired for the third time in March 2018.

Other leadership experiences have included serving on the Church Council at the Kirk of Bonnie Brae, UCC and serving as Moderator for President of the congregation twice, fifteen years apart. Elinor has been singing in the chancel choir at the Kirk fifty years. In 1996 she helped establish the Kirk MemorialGarden, a columbarium.

In 2002 Elinor helped establish Health Care for All Colorado and a year later Health Care for All Colorado Foundation, both non-profit organizations. She has served as president of both organizations and now continues to serve on the board of directors of both organizations. Elinor and Bob are the proud parents of three children and proud grandparents of eight grandchildren.

Raised in Patchogue, NY, Debra R. Judelson, MD attended college at MIT, where she majored in Metallurgy and Materials Science Engineering, won a national student award, and entered medical school planning to go into orthopedics. She found cardiology more to her liking, and ended up in Southern California where she joined Cardiovascular Medical Group of Southern California, married her college sweetheart and raised two daughters.

The most important events in her career started when AMWA gave her the opportunity to promote her passion, heart disease in women. As one of the few female cardiologists of her generation, she often spoke at AMWA meetings on heart disease in women, especially in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was at one of those meetings that an audience member offered to sponsor Dr. Judelson with a major grant to develop a program for training primary care physicians about risk factors, symptoms and diagnostic testing for coronary heart disease in women. She 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.” Thus began AMWA’s ‘train the trainer program’ to educate master faculty and raise awareness in primary care physicians about heart disease in women in the early 1990’s, and to shape our CME curriculum. Dr. Judelson 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 results triggered a media frenzy, and Dr. Judelson traveled all over the country, on radio and TV to speak on heart disease in women.

Patricia Joy Numann, MD completed surgical training at the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse New York in 1970 when few women became surgeons. She joined the faculty at her alma mater where she remained her entire academic career, retiring in 2007 as the Lloyd S Rogers Professor of Surgery. Her alma mater honored her with the Distinguished Alumna award in 2000, the SUNY Distinguished Service Professor award in 2006, and an Honorary Doctor of Science degree in 2012.

Although a general surgeon, Dr Numann built a specialized practice in breast and endocrine surgery. In 1986 she established the regions first Comprehensive Breast Care Center now named in her honor. Her dedication to women with breast cancer resulted in Carol M Baldwin establishing the Breast Cancer Research Foundation which since 2001 has donated more than 3 million dollars for Breast Cancer research. Her endocrine surgical expertise led to her election as Vice President of the AmericanAssociation of Endocrine Surgeons in 1992.

Dr Numann’s academic pursued an interest in surgical education when that was not considered an academic activity. As a founding member of the Association for Surgical Education she becamePresident in 1985. She participated in numerous educational programs of the American College of Surgeons including SESAP. She created and directs the ACS Fundamentals of the Surgery Curriculum project. In 1994 she was named a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor.

She has been a staunch supporter of gender equity. In 1981 her call for a meeting with other women surgeons resulted in the founding of the Association of Women Surgeons.Now nearly 40 years old, the organization has chapters and members throughout the world. The realization that gender equity is essential to assuring the world an adequate surgical workforce particularly in low and middle income countries has led to further support of women globally in particular, Women in Surgery Africa.

Her activism on behalf of women began early and was recognized by her community naming her Post Standard Woman of theYear in 1978, being named Local Legend by the Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians project of the National Library of Medicine’s traveling exhibition, receiving the Elizabeth Blackwell Award from the American Medical Women’s Association and being elected President of the American College of Surgeons. Her outstanding contributions to gender equity, surgical education and breast and endocrine surgery resulted in her receiving the International Society of Surgeon’s Prize in 2011 and the American College of Surgeons Lifetime Achievement award in 2019.

Dr Numann has served as mentor and sponsor of enumerable people throughout her surgical career. She has been the first woman in numerous positions most notably as a member of the American Medical Association’s Council on Scientific Affairs, chair ofAmerican Board of Surgery andPresident of the Association for Surgical Education

Sarah S. Donaldson, MD is the Catharine and Howard Avery Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and Director of the Mentoring Program in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Stanford. She is an authority in clinical radiation oncology, with particular interest and expertise in childhood cancer, especially pediatric Hodgkin’s lymphoma and rhabdomyosarcoma. She has a long time interest in the late effects of cancer and its treatment.

Dr. Donaldson received her undergraduate and nursing degrees from the University of Oregon, a BMS from Dartmouth Medical School in 1966, and her MD from Harvard Medical School in 1968. She completed her Radiation Oncology residency at Stanford, joined the faculty in 1973, and has served Stanford continuously since that time.

A member of many professional organizations, Dr. Donaldson has held numerous national leadership roles. She is a former president and the first female president of both the American Board of Radiology and the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology. She is a prior president of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), and Trustee of the R&E Foundation of the RSNA. In addition, she has served The Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and The Board of Chancellors of the American College of Radiology (ACR).

An engaging teacher, Dr. Donaldson has provided lectures, keynote speeches, and named lectures throughout America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Dr. Donaldson has received numerous honors and awards including the Marie Curie Award of the American Association for Women Radiologists (AAWR), the Janeway Medal of the American Radium Society, the Elizabeth Blackwell award of the American Medical Women’s Association, the Henry S Kaplan Memorial Prize for teaching, the Hoppe Leadership award, the Hewlett Award from the Department of Medicine and the Dean’s Medal at Stanford. She has been honored with gold medals from the del Regato Foundation, the ACR, ASTRO, and the RSNA. She was the inaugural recipient of the Women Who Conquer Cancer mentorship award of the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO. She is an Honorary Member of the European Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, the European Society of Radiology, the French Society of Radiology the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncologists, the National Council for Radiation Protection, and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. She is a fellow of ASTRO, ASCO, ACR, AAWR, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is an active member of The National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine, National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine).

Mary Jane England, MD is Clinical Professor of Health Policy and Management at Boston University School of Public Health. She served as President of Regis College in Weston, MA from 2001 to 2011, positioning the College to become a university through master’s and doctoral programs to serve the needs of education and the health industry. During 2003, England received an ABCD (Action for Boston Community Development) award for her lifelong community service and outstanding contributions to protecting at-risk children and families. Early in 2004, England received both the annual Elizabeth Blackwell Award for a distinguished American woman physician from the American Medical Women’s Association and the Saul Feldman Award at the Summit of the American College of Mental Health Administration.

During her career, Dr. England has developed and presented multiple, informed perspectives on health care reform and mental health parity on a regional and national stage. She helped design and was the first commissioner of the Department of Social Services in Massachusetts (1979-83); associate dean and director of the Lucius N. Littauer Master in Public Administration Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1983-87); president of the American Medical Women’s Association (1986-87); president of the American Psychiatric Association (1995-1996); Vice President, Prudential Insurance Company, 1987-90; and President, Washington Business Group on Health, 1990-2001, a non-profit representing the interest of large employers on national health policy issues.

Dr. England serves on Mrs. Rosalynn Carter’s Task Force on Mental Health at the Carter Center. In 2004-2005, Dr. England chaired the IOM (Institute of Medicine) committee that produced the “Crossing the Quality Chasm” report on adaptation to mental health and substance use. In 2008-2009 she chaired the IOM Committee on “Depression in Parents, Parenting, and Children: Opportunities to Improve Identification, Treatment, and Prevention,” and in 2012 she chaired the IOM committee on “Epilepsy across the Spectrum: Promoting Health and Understanding.”

As well, Dr. England participated in the ACT project in Colorado and served as Chair of the steering committee of the Farley Center in Family Medicine in Denver. She serves on the board of NSF International, a non-profit involved in standards of development, product certification, education, and risk-management for public health and safety, and serves on the board of the Tramuto Foundation as well as the Board of Visitors of the Boston University School of Medicine.

Dr. England’s leadership in children’s social services, healthcare, mental health, public advocacy and higher education is tireless and unparalleled.

Joanne Lynn, MD is an experienced geriatrician, educator, quality improvement coach, and researcher. She works half-time with Representative Tom Suozzi as a Health & Aging Policy Fellow and half-time with Altarum, doing data production describing eldercare in counties and evaluating how PACE programs responded to COVID-19. She was one of the first hospice physicians, a tenured professor at Dartmouth and at George Washington, a medical officer in the Center for Clinical Standards and Policy at CMS, and the Director of the Bureau for Cancer and Chronic Disease in the public health office for Washington DC. Joanne has published 300 professional articles and 80 books and chapters, as well as dozens of white papers, court briefs, and guidelines.

In addition to her MD degree, she has a Masters in Quantitative Clinical Sciences and a Masters in Ethics and Public Policy. She is a Member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Master in the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Hastings Center and the American Geriatrics Society, and a Member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

In some medical specialties, the glass ceiling preventing women from rising to the top leadership positions has been especially tough to break through. Surgery has been one of the least welcoming specialties for women physicians. In 1987, Olga Jonasson, MD was named chair of the department of surgery at Ohio State University College of Medicine, becoming the first woman in the United States to head an academic surgery department at a coeducational school of medicine. Dr. Jonasson was a pioneer in the field of clinical transplantation and histocompatibility.

A native of Illinois, Dr. Jonasson attended Northwestern University as an undergraduate and earned her M.D. with honors from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1958. She completed graduate medical education in surgery in 1964 at the University of Illinois Research and Education Hospital. She then served her first postgraduate fellowship in immunochemistry at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and her second fellowship in transplantation immunobiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard Medical School.

As a surgical faculty member at the University of Illinois Hospital from 1967 to 1987, she developed one of the first clinical transplantation services in Illinois and set up a statewide histocompatibility-testing laboratory for donor-recipient matching. She was named chief of surgery at Cook County Hospital in 1977, and in 1987 became chair and Robert M. Zollinger Professor of Surgery at Ohio State University. In 1993 Dr. Jonasson returned to Chicago to take a senior position at the American College of Surgeons, where she led educational programs and research in a number of areas of surgical importance.

Dr. Jonasson was a member of the editorial boards of Annals of Surgery and the Journal of the American College of Surgeons and a regular reviewer for the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine. She received a number of honors and awards, was an honorary fellow of England’s Royal College of Surgeons, and was appointed the Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine and the Elizabeth Blackwell Award of the American Medical Women’s Association. Dr. Jonasson was also a member of many surgical societies and served as a member of the board of directors of the American Board of Surgery and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. She was widely honored as teacher of medical students and surgery residents and mentored many young surgeons in the development of their careers.

Nanette Kass Wenger, MD is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the Emory University School of Medicine. She is a Consultant to the Emory Heart and Vascular Center, and Founding Consultant, Emory Women’s Heart Center.

Coronary heart disease in women is one of Dr. Wenger’s major clinical and research interests.  She chaired the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Conference on Cardiovascular Health and Disease in Women.  Dr. Wenger has expertise in cardiac rehabilitation.  She chaired the World Health Organization Expert Committee on Rehabilitation after Cardiovascular Disease, and co-chaired the Guideline Panel on Cardiac Rehabilitation for the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.  Dr. Wenger has had a longstanding interest in geriatric cardiology, is a Past President of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology and was Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Geriatric Cardiology for more than 15 years.

Dr. Wenger received the Outstanding Professional Achievement Award from Hunter College (1993), and the Physician of the Year Award of the American Heart Association (1998). In 1999, Dr. Wenger received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Scientific Councils of the American Heart Association and its Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award.  She was chosen by Atlanta Women in Law and Medicine for the Shining Star Award recognizing her distinguished career in cardiology and women’s health issues. 

In 2000, Dr Wenger was presented the James D. Bruce Memorial Award of the American College of Physicians for distinguished contributions in preventive medicine (2000). In 2002 she received the Distinguished Fellow Award of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology.  In 2003, she was included in the National Library of Medicine Exhibition Changing the Face of Medicine: A History of American Women Physicians. Dr. Wenger received the Gold Heart Award, the highest award of the American Heart Association (2004). 

At the Emory University 2004 Commencement, Dr. Wenger received the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award of the University and the Evangeline Papageorge Alumni Teaching Award of the Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Wenger was selected to deliver the 2004 Laennec Lecture of the American Heart Association. In 2006, Dr. Wenger received the Hatter Award, international recognition for the advancement of cardiovascular science. The Georgia Chapter of the American College of Cardiology presented Dr. Wenger its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. She was selected Georgia Woman of the Year for 2010. In 2011, Dr. Wenger was selected to deliver the James B. Herrick lecture by the American Heart Association for her outstanding achievement in clinical cardiology. She was elected a member of Emory’s 175 Historymakers during Emory’s first 175 years.

In 2012, Dr. Wenger received the Charles R. Hatcher, Jr., MD, Award for Excellence in Public Health from Emory University; and was honored in 2013 by the establishment of the J. Willis Hurst, R. Bruce Logue, and Nanette K. Wenger Cardiovascular Society for Emory Cardiology Trainee Alumni. In 2013, she received the Inaugural Distinguished Mentor Award of the American College of Cardiology and the Arnall Patz Lifetime Achievement Award of the Emory University School of Medicine Medical Alumni Association. The American Society of Preventive Cardiology honored Dr. Wenger by naming an annual Nanette K. Wenger Distinguished Lecture focusing on cardiovascular prevention in women (2014).

In 2015, she was awarded the Inaugural Bernadine Healy Leadership in Women’s CV Disease Award, American College of Cardiology. Dr. Wenger received the Spirit of the Heart Legacy Award in 2017 from the Association of Black Cardiologists, and was an invited lecturer for the 70th Anniversary NHLBI program in Bethesda, MD in 2018. In 2019 she received the Outstanding Alumna Award from the Emory Alumni Association. 

Dr. Wenger has participated as an author of several American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Clinical Practice Guidelines. She is past Chair, Board of Directors, Society for Women’s Health Research. Dr. Wenger serves on the editorial boards of numerous professional journals and is a sought after lecturer for issues related to heart disease in women, heart disease in the elderly, cardiac rehabilitation, coronary prevention, and contemporary cardiac care. She is listed in Best Doctors in America.

Dr. Wenger has authored or coauthored over 1600 scientific and review articles and book chapters.

Physician, educator, and writer Jeanne Spurlock, MD drew inspiration in her career from the challenges she faced in life as an African American woman. As a psychiatrist, she made significant contributions in focusing the medical community’s attention on the stresses of poverty, sexism, racism, and discrimination that effect women, minorities, gays, and lesbians. She was particularly concerned with addressing the unique challenges faced by single women, children of absent fathers, and African Americans experiencing what she called “survivor guilt,” —having ambivalent feelings about their own success.

Born in Sandusky, Ohio, Jeanne Spurlock was the first-born in a modest-income family of seven children. After a negative experience in the hospital when she was being treated for a broken leg at age 9, she was convinced of the need for more caring doctors. Believing she was too poor to attend medical school, she decided instead to become a teacher.

After graduating from high school in Detroit, she entered Spelman College in Atlanta on a scholarship in 1940. Though she worked almost full time to meet expenses, she couldn’t afford to continue, and after several years left Spelman and moved to Chicago and enrolled in Roosevelt University. In 1943 she was accepted at Howard University’s College of Medicine in a special accelerated program, and graduated in 1947.

Though few African Americans were entering the psychiatric field at this time, Spurlock completed a residency program in psychiatry at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital in 1950. After a fellowship at the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago, she took a position as staff psychiatrist there, with concurrent appointments at the Mental Hygiene Clinic at Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Chicago and the Illinois School for the Deaf. In 1953, she began training at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, where she remained until 1962, also serving as director of the Children’s Psychosomatic Unit, at the Neuropsychiatric Institute. From 1960 to 1968 she was attending psychiatrist and chief of the Child Psychiatry Clinic at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. She also taught as assistant professor of psychiatry at the Illinois College of Medicine, and maintained a private psychiatric practice.

In 1968, Spurlock was appointed chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Meharry Medical College in Nashville. In 1973, she took a position as visiting scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health, Division of Special Mental Health Programs in Bethesda, Maryland. The following year, she became deputy medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, a position she held until 1991. She continued a small private practice during this period, and held clinical professorships at George Washington University and Howard University. Taking advantage of her proximity to Capitol Hill, she often lobbied policymakers to ensure funding for medical and post-medical education, particularly for minorities.

Dr. Spurlock was a prominent member of the American Women’s Medical Association and the Black Psychiatrists of America. She served on the Board of Directors of the Carnegie Corporation, and belonged to the National Urban League, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Delta Adult Literacy Council. She sat on a variety of editorial boards, and was the author of numerous scholarly articles addressing the problems of sexism, racism, and cultural misunderstanding in the mental health field. She co-authored the influential text, Culturally Diverse Children and Adolescents: Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment, published in 1994. One of her final projects, Black Psychiatrists and American Psychiatry, published in 1999, described the experience of African-American psychiatrists in academia, research, psychoanalysis, and community psychiatry.

Spurlock won numerous awards throughout her long, diverse, and prolific career. In 1971, she was the first African American and the first woman to receive the Edward A. Strecker M.D. Award from the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital for excellence in psychiatric care and treatment. She also received the 1990 Guardian for Children Award from the National Black Child Development Institute.

After her death in 1999, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry named two fellowships in her honor: the Jeanne Spurlock Research Fellowship in Drug Abuse and Addiction for Minority Medical Students (in conjunction with the National Institute on Drug Abuse), and the Jeanne Spurlock Minority Medical Student Clinical Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In 1999, the American Psychiatric Association created the Jeanne Spurlock Minority Fellowship Achievement Award followed by the Jeanne Spurlock Congressional Fellowship in 2002. In recognition of her outstanding contribution to medicine, in 2000, Dr. Spurlock was posthumously given the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, the highest honor bestowed by the American Medical Women’s Association.

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.

Psychiatrist Leah J. Dickstein, MD 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.

Tina Strobos, MD was a family psychiatrist who courageously dedicated her life to using her platform and privilege to help others.

Her parents had provided a safe hiding spot for refugees during and after World War I. She followed suit during World War II, helping her mother to conceal over 100 Jews and other refugees in a carefully made hiding space in their Amsterdam home during World War II. Her actions saved the refugees from being turned over to the Gestapo and sent to concentration camps.

In another display of courage and willingness to take risks for what she believed in, she and her medical school classmates refused to sign a loyalty oath to the Nazis, resulting in their school being closed. However, this did not deter Dr. Strobos, as she continued to study medicine on her own. After the war, she finished her medical degree and continued her training, studying psychiatry with Anna Freud in London and moving to New York to complete a residency in psychiatry and neurology in Valhalla at the Westchester Medical Center.

Throughout her career, she continued to use her voice to speak up for others and for what she believed in. In her family psychiatry practice, she specialized in the mentally impaired and used her platform to speak out against the use of torture. Her courageous undertakings as a medical student were later recognized by Holocaust organizations who listed her as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/nyregion/dr-tina-strobos-who-harbored-jews-from-the-nazis-dies-at-91.html
https://www.ifcj.org/news/fellowship-blog/i-believe-in-heroism/
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/nyregion/17metjournal.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/tina-strobos-dutch-student-who-rescued-100-jews-during-the-holocaust-dies-at-91/2012/02/29/gIQAfalKjR_story.html

LeClairBissell, MD received a Masters in Library Science from Columbia University and worked as a librarian for the New York Public Library before returning to Columbia in 1963 for medical school. That decision was prompted by the influences of her life partner, Nancy Palmer, and Dr. Bissell’s participation in the Yale School of Alcohol Studies. After completing her medical degree, Dr. Bissell pursued certification as an addictions counselor on the grounds that physicians needed far more than medical knowledge to effectively treat alcoholism and other addictions.

The remaining decades of Dr.Bissell’s service to the field of addiction medicine were filled with many roles. She was a leading clinician and administrator at such prestigious institutions as the Smithers Alcoholism Treatment & Training Center at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. She was a skilled researcher, making landmark contributions to the study of addicted professionals. She was a skilled teacher and lecturer, traveling throughout the world speaking on addiction-related and recovery-related issues. She was a distinguished author, writing and co-writing such classic texts as Alcoholism in the Professions, Ethics for Addiction Professionals and even a children’s book entitled The Cat Who Drank Too Much. Dr. Bissell was also a prime mover within the addictions field through her leadership roles (e.g., president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and member of the Carter Mental Health Commission’s Task Force on Alcoholism) and through her outspoken advocacy on major issues the field confronted over the past five decades.

LeClair Bissell received wide acknowledgement from the field, including awards from the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the Elizabeth Blackwell Award from the American Medical Women’s Association—their highest honor for outstanding contributions to the cause of women and medicine. She was also acknowledged for civic contributions to Zonta; theDemocratic Party; the Unitarian Universalist Church; Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians& Gays; the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Coalition; Planned Parenthood; and for her devotion to rescuing dogs. (It is hard to think ofDr. Bissell without accompanying images of her beloved Chihuahuas). She was the consummate activist who pursued this role, not from a position of arrogance, but in a spirit of humility and service.

Adapted with permission from:

White, W. (2009). Tribute to a pioneer: Dr. LeClair Bissell. Counselor, 10(3), 52-56.

Elizabeth Karlin, MD was a tireless advocate for women’s rights and health issues. In 1992, she was honored as “feminist of the year” by the Wisconsin chapter of the National Organization for Women. Throughout her career she was an outspoken advocate for women’s reproductive rights.

Born in New York City, Karlin graduated from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science when she was 16 years old. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Antioch College in Ohio, and an M.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School. After working abroad as a general practitioner in Tanzania, she returned to Madison to establish a practice in internal medicine.

In 1990, however, her practice was to change. Her friends, concerned about the lack of local doctors with training, encouraged her to become an abortion provider, which she did after studying with a fellow physician in Madison. As director of the Women’s Medical Center on Madison’s West Side, she offered, in her words, “a full range of medical care and counseling to women who largely have no other access to health care…who least expect kindness, excellence or even cleanliness.”

The mother of two children, Karlin consistently asserted her belief in the value of motherhood and family, while fighting to preserve women’s reproductive rights. “I don’t do abortions because it’s a filthy job and somebody has to do it,” she explained in a 1995 New York Times article. “I do them because it is the most challenging medicine I can think of. I provide women with nurturing, preventive care to counteract a violent religious and political environment. I hope to do it well enough to prevent repeat abortions.”

Through the 1990s, Karlin was both praised and reviled for her public pro-choice stance. In 1992, she was honored as “feminist of the year” by the Wisconsin chapter of the National Organization for Women. At the same time, anti-abortion protestors repeatedly vandalized her clinic. She was the target of constant harassment and abuse. She was forced to wear a bullet-proof vest and hire security to protect her clinic and staff.

Karlin’s involvement with the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy began in 1996, when she became one of four named plaintiffs in the case of Karlin versus Foust, which challenged Wisconsin’s mandatory delay and “informed consent” law requiring a waiting period and counseling for women seeking abortions. Shortly after her death, he Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals ultimately upheld the Wisconsin law in 1999.

Elizabeth Karlin died in 1998 at age 54, at her home in Arena, Wisconsin, only a few months after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, a close friend of Karlin’s from her days as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, visited her during her illness and was vocal in her praise. Her friend and journalist Molly Ivins called her “one of the most life-affirming people I’ve ever run across.” The University of Wisconsin Foundation commemorated Karlin with the Elizabeth Karlin Fellowship in Women’s Health. awarded to women who train to become leaders in women’s health and women’s health research.

Anne Flitcraft, MD is a graduate of the Yale University School of Medicine (1977). She provided some of the first research on violence against women and the many ways that such violence affects women’s health. During the 1980’s and 1990’s, she worked with many organizations including the American Medical Association, American Medical Women’s Association, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American College of Emergency Medicine and the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General in developing continuing education programs for physicians and articulating guidelines for care.

As co-director of the Domestic Violence Training Project (DVTP), “A Program for Healthcare Professional,” Dr. Flitcraft helped hospitals and clinics develop programs of identification, outreach and support for women in abusive relationships. The recipient of many grants and awards, Dr. Flitcraft is particularly honored by receipt of the Elizabeth Blackwell Award for “outstanding contributions to the cause of women in medicine” from the American Medical Women’s Association in 1994.

Dr. Flitcraft was an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She maintained a primary care practice and taught medical residents and students at the Burgdorf Health Center in the North End community of Hartford, Connecticut. She has been the recipient of multiple faculty teaching awards. Retired from UCONN in 2013, she is now involved in teaching first year medical students at Yale University.

Yoshiye Togasaki, MD was an extraordinary physician, activist, and leader who dedicated her life to the welfare of the communities around her. Her father once said, “I will not leave you any money, I will not leave you any wealth, but I will give you any education you wish to aspire to, and no questions asked.” She and her 5 sisters chose healthcare – three became nurses and three became physicians, while her three brothers were groomed for the family business.

Dr. Togasaki earned her BA in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley (1929), her MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (1935), and later her MPH from Harvard (1948).

After completing her internship and residency in Los Angeles with a focus on communicable diseases, she was unable to find employment in public health as a result of intense anti-Japanese sentiment, “in spite of placement in the top three in civil service examinations.” As she was starting her medical practice in Los Angeles, however, she was sent to Manzanar Relocation Center, where, according to Dr. Togasaki herself, she received her true public health training as a “Camp” Physician. She advocated for the health of the community by demanding clean food and water, proper sewage systems, and necessary medical supplies, including baby formula and vaccines.

In 1943, she was able to leave the camps to receive additional residency training in pediatrics at Bellevue Hospital. The following year, she worked with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to improve health conditions at refugee camps in Southern Italy. Later, she became a consultant for the California State Department, Assistant Health Officer at the Contra Costa County Health Department, and ultimately the Chief of the Division of Preventive Medical Services and Deputy Health Officer of the department until she retired in 1972. Special assignments included programs with the US Indian Services Reservation staff.

An ardent supporter of Planned Parenthood, Dr. Togasaki was a lifelong activist with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Japanese American Citizens league. She served as president of Soroptimist International of Concord as well as of the Contra Costa Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. She is a founding member of the Japanese Women Alumnae of UC Berkeley.

Dr. Togasaki was a long-time member of the American Medical Women’s Association (since 1939) and the American Public Health Association (APHA), becoming a fellow of the APHA in 1952. She received numerous distinguished awards for her activism and community service, including the following: the California Association of Mental Health Award, the National Service Award from the national Japanese American Citizens League, the Planned Parenthood Award for Maternal and Child Health Care, and the “Distinguished Woman of the Year” award from the American Association of the University Women. She received multiple community service awards from the Soroptimist International of Diablo Valley, the Contra Costa county JACL, and the Japanese Cultural Community Center of Northern California. She received multiple Woman of Achievement awards from Soroptimist International of Concord at the District and Region level in 1987. She received the 1989 Lifelong Achievement Award from the Concord Human Relations Commission, the Humanitarian of the Year Award at the 1990 Contra Costa County Dr. MLK Jr. Commemoration, the 1991 Outstanding Alumna Award from the Japanese Women Alumnae of UC Berkeley, and the 1991 Elizabeth Blackwell Medal from the American Medical Women’s Association

Dr. Togaski also participated in Congressional hearings on the Human Rights Act of 1985, the special commission on wartime relocation in 1981, and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

Sources:

Drexel University College of Medicine, The Legacy Center Archives – Physician Files
http://www.dvjacl.org/info/Togasaki_bio.pdf
https://150w.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/takahashi_joyce_lives_and_legacy.pdf

Jane Hodgson, MD was a pioneer in the abortion rights movement, challenging the legal system and improving the availability of gynecologic and reproductive care to all women through free-standing clinics. Through her clinical work in Minnesota, and traveling in Africa and the Middle East, she became acutely aware of how women suffered from illegal abortions and poorly managed medical care. As a result, Dr. Hodgson devoted her life to the protection of reproductive choices for women.

Born in Crookston, Minnesota in 1915, Jane Hodgson married physician Frank Quattlebaum in 1940, and the couple had two daughters. Most of her career was spent in Minnesota, including her private practice from 1947 to 1972, and as medical director of the Fertility Control Center at St. Paul Ramsey Hospital from 1974 to 1979.

In 1947, Dr. Hodgson was overwhelmed with patients who, she observed, had little control over their reproductive lives. She counseled many women who were unable to conceive, along with those who were faced with unwanted pregnancies. Her early research included pregnancy-testing methods and in 1952 she became a Founding Fellow of American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG).

During the early 1960s, Dr. Hodgson saw examples from around the world that convinced her of the need to protect women’s reproductive rights. She toured hospitals in Tanzania in 1961, then served three tours of duty on the Project Hope ship to Peru, Ecuador, and Nicaragua in the 1960s. Dr. Hodgson realized that “a woman’s place in society was directly related to the availability of abortion services, contraception, and family planning services. In countries where it was all illegal, women were much were worse off as far as their overall rights, health care, and poverty levels.”

In 1970, before the 1973 Roe versus Wade decision granting women rights in their reproductive choices, Hodgson challenged Minnesota’s restrictive abortion laws when a twenty-three-year-old mother of three who had contracted rubella early in her fourth pregnancy wanted an abortion. Hodgson became the first doctor convicted of performing an abortion in a hospital (Hodgson v. Minnesota). In 1990 the US Supreme Court issued a decision supporting her position. Her testimony has been heard in courtrooms all over the country in the struggle for abortion rights, and in Canada it was instrumental in the legalization of abortion in 1988. Dr. Hodgson was a leading proponent of moving abortions out of the hospital operating room, thereby decreasing the risks associated with surgical anesthesia. She established numerous freestanding clinics offering the best in gynecologic and reproductive care, including safe outpatient abortions.

She served as medical director of the Preterm Clinic in Washington, D.C. from 1972 to 1974, and made many tours for Project Hope, most recently in Grenada in 1984, and as visiting professor at Zheijiang Medical University in the People’s Republic of China from 1985 to 1986.

Roselyn Payne Epps, MD attended Howard University, where she received both her B.S. and M.D. degrees, with honors. She completed her internship and pediatric residencies at Freedmen’s Hospital, and was appointed chief resident. Dr. Epps earned the M.P.H. degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and the M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from American University in Washington, D.C. She was certified by the American Board of Pediatrics, a member of the American Pediatric Society, Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, and Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society. She was a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Her public health career began as a well-baby clinic doctor in the D.C. Health Department. She pioneered new programs and services, and collaborations between government agencies and the community. As an outspoken and effective advocate for the citizens of the District of Columbia and underserved populations, Dr. Epps chaired the task force that developed the Comprehensive Child Care Plan for the District of Columbia. She was appointed the first Acting Commissioner of Public Health for the District of Columbia in 1980. From 1981 to 1984, at the Department of pediatrics and Child Health at Howard University Hospital, Dr. Epps was founding Director of the High Risk Young People’s Project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The programs and services were collaboration between several Howard University Hospital departments, the D.C. Department of Public Health, and The Center for Youth Services. The Project provided community based comprehensive health and social services for high risk youth, ages 15 to 24 years of age. The majority of the patients served at the 15 to 24 Evening Center were male. RWJF Board of Trustees chose the HUH project as an exemplary program. From 1984-89, she was Chief of the Child Development Division and Director of the Child Development Center. She directed several federally funded projects involving child development team assessments and worked with parents and schools. Also at Howard University, she served as the Senior Program Advisor at the Women’s Health Institute, and is Professor Emerita of Pediatrics and Child Health.

As an Expert at the National Institutes of Health from 1989-1998, Dr. Epps conceived of and directed the research-based pediatric program to prevent the onset of smoking by children and youth. She devised strategies to train 100,000 clinicians in smoking cessation techniques nationwide, and delivered the programs in foreign countries. She managed cancer control and helped develop programs for racial and ethnic minorities, and citizens of Appalachia. For 20 years, she served on the Board of Directors of Every Child by Two—the Carter/Bumpers Immunization Campaign.

Dr. Epps authored or co-authored more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, co-edited 17 scientific chapters, and co-edited 14 books and monographs. She was co-editor of The Women’s Complete Healthbook, a 740-page, award winning reference book. The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services appointed Dr. Epps as a member of the Sickle Cell Advisory Committee and the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on the Rights and Responsibilities of Women. She served as chair of the HHS Maternal and Child Health Research Grants Review Committee. Dr. Epps was a medical consultant for the World Bank, The United Nations, NIH, and international private agencies.

A pioneer, Dr. Epps was the first African-American local and national president of the American Medical Women’s Association. She was the first African-American and the first woman president of the D.C. Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the first African-American woman president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. She was national president of Girls, Incorporated, and the first African-American national and local president of Children’s International Summer Villages. Dr. Epps served as Chair, Pediatric Section, National Medical Association, and as Chair of the Council on Maternal and Child Health. She was a member of the American Hospital Association’s Maternal and Child Health Governing Council. Locally, she was Chair of the Board of the Hospital for Sick Children.

Dr. Epps’ more than 60 honors include: The Federal Women’s Award; The Elizabeth Blackwell Award; the NMA Achievement Award; honors from NIH, Howard University, D.C. Government, and Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association. The Council of the District of Columbia declared February 14, 1981, as “Dr. Roselyn Payne Epps Day”. She was featured in Black Enterprise, the Medical Herald, Life magazine, and on Lifetime television. Dr. Epps was inducted into the D.C. Women’s Hall of Fame, and the D.C. Hall of Fame. She was presented the Society for Women’s Health Research’s first Advocacy Award, Howard University’s Distinguished Alumni Award. Dr. Epps is profiled in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Women’s Museum in Dallas, TX, and the National Library of Medicine exhibit, Celebrating America’s Women Physicians. Since 1993, at the annual meeting of the National Medical Association, the Community Medicine Section has sponsored the Roselyn Payne Epps, M.D. Symposium. She was presented the Howard University Dean’s Special Service Award in recognition of her contributions to medical education, the global community and humanity. In 2013, she received the W. Montague Cobb Lifetime Achievement Award from the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute.

She was married to classmate Charles H. Epps, Jr., M.D. for 59 years. Two of their sons and their daughter earned M.D. degrees, and one son earned the M.B.A. degree. They have two daughters-in-law and four grandsons.

Born in Yorkshire, England of Scottish parents, both doctors, Anne Barlow, MD 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.)

Lila Wallis, MD 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.

In 1950, Helen Dickens, MD was the first African American woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons. The daughter of a former slave, she would sit at the front of the class in medical school so that she would not be bothered by the racist comments and gestures made by her classmates. By 1969 she was associate dean in the Office for Minority Affairs at the University of Pennsylvania, and within five years had increased minority enrollment from three students to sixty-four.

Helen Octavia Dickens was born in 1909, in Dayton, Ohio. Her father, Charles Warren Dickens, a former slave and water boy during the Civil War, was raised by a Union colonel from the age of 9. A self-educated man, he took the name Charles Dickens after meeting the famous english novelist. Although he had “read law” and had a keen intellect, prejudice confined him to janitorial work. Her mother, Daisy Jane Dickens, was a domestic servant to the Reynolds family of paper manufacturers.

Because both her parents had struggled to make a living in low-paying jobs, they insisted that Helen receive a good education and follow a professional career, and with their encouragement she attended a desegregated high school. As a young adult, Helen Dickens continued to apply to the best schools and hospitals, refusing to be intimidated at predominantly white institutions. Inspired by the achievements of other African American women who had gone before her, she benefited from the practical advice and support of such mentors. Dr. Elizabeth Hill, the first African American physician to graduate from the University of Illinois, helped her to register for medical school. Helen Dickens earned her M.D. degree at the same institution in 1934, the only African-American woman in her class.

Dickens completed her internship at Provident, a black hospital on the south side of Chicago, treating tuberculosis among the poor. She was discouraged by the lack of community done by medical residents, and relished the opportunity to move away to her first job, at Virginia Alexander’s Aspiranto Health Home in Philadelphia in 1935.

In addition to her general practice, Dr. Dickens provided obstetric and gynecologic care. Once again, she worked in difficult circumstances to help her patients living in extreme poverty. In one instance, she arrived at the home of a woman in labor to find that there was no electricity. She had to move the bed to the window to conduct the delivery by streetlight. To address such problems, Dr. Alexander installed four beds at the three-story row house serving as the Aspiranto Health Home.

After six years working at Aspiranto, Dr. Dickens decided to expand her training in obstetrics and gynecology, returning to Provident Hospital for a specialist residency. In 1943, she married Purvis Sinclair Henderson, a fellow resident, and moved to Harlem Hospital in New York City to work under the guidance of esteemed surgeon and internist, Peter Marshall Murray. In 1945 she received her master of science degree from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and in 1946 she completed her residency at Harlem and was certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Dr. Dickens returned to Philadelphia in 1948 as director of the Mercy Douglass Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and, in 1950, became the first African American-woman fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Toward the end of her directorship in the late 1960s, Dickens also taught at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the next twenty years, she rose through the ranks, from instructor, through to professor, culminating in her appointment as professor emeritus in 1985. At the same time, she served on the staff of the Woman’s Hospital in Philadelphia and later, the faculty of the Medical College of Pennsylvania.

In patient care, Dr. Dickens concentrated on preventing some of the problems she had seen so frequently in her obstetrics and gynecology practice. Hoping to educate young women to empower themselves, she led extensive research into teen pregnancy and sexual health issues. She used the results of her wide-ranging survey to advise schools, parents, and health professionals on intervention strategies to lower the incidence of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. She received numerous honors for her work on sexual health for young and adult women, including awards from the Girl Scouts of Greater Philadelphia and the American Cancer Society. Her own daughter, Dr. Jayne Henderson Brown, has followed in her footsteps and practices, as her mother did, in Philadelphia.

Claudine M. Gay, MD (d. 2001) was a family medicine practitioner and obstetrician-gynecologist who made a point to educate women on the importance of early cancer detection.

Born in Georgia, she came from a family with many generations of physicians.Dr. Gay was a graduate of the College of William & Mary and University of Virginia Medical School (1939) where she was the only woman in her medical class. She interned at the Gallinger Hospital in Washington, D.C.

She and her first husband, Lendall C. Gay, founded a medical practice at Fourth and EastCapitol streets in Washington, where she practiced for 50 years. Her second husband was Dr. James Bryant.

Dr. Gay served five American presidents as a member of various councils and commissions. She was president of the American Medical Women’s Association (1976-1977), Fellow of the American Academy of Family Practice, a delegate to five Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) Congresses, president of the DC chapters of the American Academy of Family Practice and AMWA, and both board member and officer of the D.C. Medical Society. In 1986, she received the Capitol Hill Community Achievement Award for her extraordinary service.

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2001/12/22/claudine-moss-gay-washington-p/60684261-1c2e-4ecc-aa79-efde06d648c1/(accessed April 29, 2021)

AMWA Files.

A. Lois Scully, MD 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.

For over three decades, Carol Nadelson, MD has been involved in the career development of women clinicians and researchers. In 1979, she was selected as Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at New England Medical Center and Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. In 1984, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) elected her as its first woman president. She was a founding member of the first committee on women in AP A. She has been Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS) since 1995. She recently stepped down from her position as Editor in Chief, President and CEO of American Psychiatric Press, Inc.

Many of her appointments have allowed her to influence policy. Dr Nadelson was appointed to chair a section of the HMS Admissions committee; served on the Council on Medical Education and Career Development, APA’s Ethics Appeals Board; chaired the Committee on Medical Student Education and the Council of National Affairs. She has been representative to the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee, to the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, and their representative to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. She was elected to the HMS Faculty Council of which she is Vice Chair; and is a founder of Harvard’s Joint Committee on the Status of Women.

She is a long time member of the women liaison officers group. Among her awards are election to Alpha Omega Alpha, the Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Psychiatry from the American College of Psychiatrists; the APA’s Seymour Vestermark Award for outstanding contributions to psychiatric education; the AMA’s Sidney Cohen Award for outstanding contributions to the understanding of addiction; the Boston YMCA’s Woman of Achievement; the Elizabeth Blackwell Award; the American Medical Women’s Association award for Recognition of the Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Women in the Field of Medicine; and the AAMC Women in Medicine Leadership Development Award. In 2002, she received the Alexandra Symond’s award from APA, recognizing outstanding contributions to women’s mental health.

Leadership in major organizations includes the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry (Board of Directors and is now President-elect), the American College of Psychiatrists (Board of Regents), the Association for Academic Psychiatry (President), and the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training Programs. She has also served on the Psychiatric Education Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr Nadelson is a Trustee of the Menninger Foundation and a member of the Board of Directors of the Menninger Clinic.

During her academic career, Dr Nadelson has presented nearly 1,000 lectures, written over 200 papers and chapters, and co-edited 15 books. During Dr Naddson’s tenure as Editor-in-Chief, the American Psychiatric Press, Inc, published more books on women’s health and leadership than any other medical press.

In 1998, she was selected as Director of the Partners Office for Women’s Careers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School (OWC) charge to the search committee consisting of male and female faculty was to find someone who had a demonstrated excellence in identifying, developing, and enhancing the academic medical careers of women. Because of OWCs uniqueness, Dr Nadelson has been asked to guide other American teaching hospitals in developing similar offices. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, she formed the OWC Advisory Committee that works with her to identify projects and advocate for women’s careers. This has led to the development of a much larger informal network that collaborates on advancement of professional women in the hospital.

Dr Nadelson is currently spearheading the development of an on-site-emergency-childcare facility for patients and staff. Moreover, the OWC office kept the importance of equitable maternity benefits before the emerging BWH physician’s organization. Dr Nadelson worked to help administration understand that women patients want the best women doctors, and that these doctors will more likely be drawn to facilities that offer solid maternity benefits. While the staff and nurses have had paid maternity benefits for years, it was in March 2001 that the BWH department chairs endorsed a paid maternity benefit for all women MDs and PhDs.

Dr Nadelson has long been recognized as an authority on sexual harassment, assault, and misconduct. She has worked with Harvard and Tufts Medical Centers to bring rape prevention, counseling, and sexual harassment to the level of administrative awareness, and she has developed clinical and educational programs on sexual assault in Boston, the United States, and throughout the world. Dr Nadelson has presented internationally on the subject of professional boundary violations, and professional sexual misconduct. She has served on the A..”lv1aAn d Massachusetts Medical Society’s Committee on Physician Health and the AMA Committee on Family Violence.

Dr Nadelson began her academic career as a pathfinder and leader and has continued to be a powerful influence on policy related to women in academic medicine. She has been active in student and professional guidance and has been recognized and richly awarded for her efforts in women’s issues. She is in a unique role as the Director of the Office of Women’s Careers in a major teaching hospital. One by one and group by group, she analyzes the need and then identifies the solution. She is capable in any situation to bring the challenge to the fore and argue for a concerted solution.

The world’s leading spokesperson for the antinuclear movement, Helen Caldicott, MD is the co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, and the 2003 winner of the Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom. Both the Smithsonian Institute and Ladies’ Home Journal have named her one of the most influential women of the twentieth century.

In 2001 Dr. Caldicott founded the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, which later became Beyond Nuclear, in Washington, D.C. The author of The New Nuclear Danger, War in Heaven (with Craig Eisendrath), Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer, and Loving This Planet and the editor of Crisis Without End and Sleepwalking to Armageddon (all published by The New Press), she is currently president of the Helen Caldicott Foundation/NuclearFreePlanet.org. She divides her time between Australia and the United States.

Charlotte Kerr, MD started her medical career at the University of Illinois, where she received her B.S. and M.D. (1948) degrees. She also completed an M.S. in nutrition at Iowa State College. She went on to rotate at Cook County Hospital for her internship and completed an obstetrics residency at the Salvation Army Booth Hospital before becoming an attending physician at Passavant Memorial Hospital and Cook County Hospital, both in Chicago. She was an Instructor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Northwestern University School of Medicine. Dr.Kerr joined the Chicago branch of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) in 1948, becoming president of the same branch in 1958.

In 1958, she moved to Michigan City, Indiana, where she was Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Anthony Hospital, Memorial Hospital, and LaPorte CommunityHospital. She later continued her career in Florida, opening up a private practice affiliated with Lake Seminole Hospital and University Hospital in Seminole, FL and consulting at Bay Pines Veterans’ Administration Hospital. Alongside her practice, she was active in various roles with national AMWA, serving as Treasurer (1965, 1971), Councillor for Growth and Development (1973), Second Vice President(1974), and President (1977).

Dr. Kerr was a member of the American Medical Association, the Pinellas County Medical Society, the Florida State Medical Association, and the Central Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College for Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Dr. Kerr was appointed as a consultant on the Advisory Panel for Obstetric and Gynecologic Devices of the FDA in 1973, eventually being named Chairman in 1977. She was also a member of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Study of Intrauterine Devices for the FDA in Washington, DC in 1974. She was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal by AMWA in 1984.

Outside of medicine, she was active with the Daughters of the American Revolution and the St.Andrews Episcopal Church. She was married to Dr. John Kerr, a urologist and they had one daughter, Patricia.

Clara Raven, MD, Colonel AUS-Retired was a trailblazer for women in medicine both in her career achievements and her contributions to the body of medical knowledge. She graduated from the University of Michigan with bachelor’s and master’s degrees and went on to become the only female student in her medical school class at Duke University. After transferring to Northwestern University Medical School under a quota system limiting enrollment of female students to just four spots, she received her MD degree in 1938.

Dr. Raven was a research fellow in England at the University of Liverpool just before World War II began in Europe. Upon her return to the U.S., she volunteered to serve in the army, but was not admitted until 1943, when legislation was finally passed, allowing women physicians to become commissioned officers of the military. She became one of the first five women physicians commissioned to serve and through her work, contributed to the research of hepatitis in both Europe and East Asia and hemorrhagic fever in the latter.

In 1958, Dr. Raven became the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner of Wayne County in Michigan.  In 1961, she became the first female physician to achieve the rank of full colonel in the Army Medical Corps. She conducted over 20 years of research on the cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, bringing her expertise to a U.S. Senate subcommittee in the hopes of increasing funding for research and counseling around SIDS.

Dr. Raven was the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In addition to the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, she received the Michigan State Medical Flag Award and the 1962 Northwestern Alumni Merit Award. She was the first female officer to become a member of the Military Order of World Wars and the Association of Military Surgeons, a nod to her trailblazing presence and achievement in the armed forces.

Source: Michigan Women Forward

https://miwf.org/timeline/clara-raven  (accessed April 29, 2021)

Helen Brooke Taussig, MD is known as the founder of pediatric cardiology for her innovative work on “blue baby” syndrome. In 1944, Taussig, surgeon Alfred Blalock, and surgical technician Vivien Thomas developed an operation to correct the congenital heart defect that causes the syndrome. Since then, their operation has prolonged thousands of lives, and is considered a key step in the development of adult open heart surgery the following decade. Dr. Taussig also helped to avert a thalidomide birth defect crisis in the United States, testifying to the Food and Drug Administration on the terrible effects the drug had caused in Europe.

Helen Taussig was born 1898 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Frank W. Taussig, a well-known economist and professor at Harvard University, and Edith Guild, one of the first students at Radcliffe College. Her mother died when she was only 11, and her grandfather, a physician who had a strong interest in biology and zoology, may have influenced her decision to become a doctor.

Despite suffering from dyslexia—a reading impairment—Taussig excelled in higher education. She graduated from the Cambridge School for Girls in 1917 and became a champion tennis player during her two years of study at Radcliffe. She earned a B.A. degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1921, and after studying at Harvard Medical School and Boston University she transferred to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to pursue her interest in cardiac research.

Taussig graduated from Hopkins in 1927, and served as a fellow in cardiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital for the next year, followed by a two-year pediatrics internship. In 1930 she was appointed head of the Children’s Heart Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital pediatric unit, the Harriet Lane Home, where she worked until her retirement in 1963.

By the time Taussig graduated from Hopkins, she had lost her hearing and relied on lip-reading and hearing aids for the rest of her career. Some of her innovations in pediatric cardiology have been attributed to her ability to distinguish the rhythms of normal and damaged hearts by touch, rather than by sound.

Anoxemia or “blue baby” syndrome, the congenital heart condition which Taussig specialized in, is caused by a defect that prevents the heart from receiving enough oxygen. Taussig used fluoroscopy, a new x-ray technique, to establish that babies suffering from anoxemia had a leaking septum (the wall that separates the chambers of the heart), and an underdeveloped artery leading from the heart to the lungs. In 1941 Taussig suggested an idea for an operation that might help children with “blue baby” to her colleagues at Hopkins—surgeon Alfred Blalock and surgical technician Vivien Thomas. On November 9, 1944 Taussig and Blalock first performed this new operation on a child with anoxemia, (after Thomas had experimented extensively with the procedure). They later repeated it successfully on two more patients. They published their results in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The technique was named the Blalock-Taussig operation, and was soon used worldwide. Taussig continued her research on cardiac birth defects and published her important work Congenital Malformations of the Heart, in 1947.

In 1954 Helen Taussig received the prestigious Lasker Award for her work on the blue baby operation, and in 1959 she was awarded a full professorship at Johns Hopkins University, one of the first women in the history of the school to hold that rank. A founder of the subspecialty of pediatric cardiology, Taussig was elected president of the American Heart Association in 1965, and was the first woman recipient of the highest award given by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1964 Taussig received the Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson.

Mathilda R. Vaschak, MD (1910-1996), a specialist in occupational medicine, was the second woman in the United States to become a diplomate of the American Board of Preventive Medicine and Public Health. She was recognized by the New Jersey Medical Women’s Association as a “pioneer woman physician” and by the New Jersey Medical Association (1986) for her career in medicine that spanned 50 years. She was honored by the American Medical Women’s Association with its most prestigious award, the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal. Although her career focused on industrial medicine and occupational health, her colleagues recognized her as an activist promoting the achievements of women in medicine, as well as the access of the poor to health care. To that end, she served as trustee of the American Medical Women’s Association’s American Hospital Service Committee, which provides funding for clinics serving the poor worldwide. She also served as the president of the Pan-American Medical Women’s Association, the New Jersey Industrial Medicine Association, and the New Jersey Medical Women’s Association (Branch 4 of the American Medical Women’s Association).

Dr. Vaschak was born August 30, 1910 in Youngstown, Ohio. She attended Western Reserve University, Cleveland (1932) and Women’s Medical College, Philadelphia (1936). She taught at State Teachers College in Albany, NY and was the staff physician for both Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and American Telephone and Telegraph Corp. in New York City before joining the medical services department of E.R. Squibb in New Brunswick, NJ where she was medical director for 10 years. She reminded her son that she became a physician despite not knowing any English on the first day of first grade, having a father that wished her to join the family funeral home business instead of going to university and medical school, and having few women mentors and models preceding her in the profession.

Her husband, L. Robert Oaks, was a strong supporter of AMWA, recipient of AMWA’s Camille Mermod Award for his public relation services to AMWA and was known in the association for the famed Bob Oaks Tours, sightseeing excursions which he organized for attendees at the AMWA annual meetings.

Source:

AMWA Physician Files, The Legacy Center, Drexel University College of Medicine

Ann Pearce Dyer Manton, MD was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She earned her medical degree at Boston University in 1925 and completed her training with internship at the New England and University Hospitals. She was a consultant in surgery at the New England Hospital and also affiliated with many other local hospitals in the Boston area. She is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

She received AMWA’s Elizabeth Blackwell Medal in 1980 for her outstanding service to the cause of women physicians and to the association. She served as Chairman of AMWA’s Publications Committee, co-chairman of the Publicity and Public Relations Committee, member of the House of Delegates, member of the Finance and Nominating and Elections Committees. From 1959-1960, she served as president of the oldest organization of women physicians in the world, AMWA Branch #39, organized in 1878 as the New England Hospital Medical Society.

She was married to Carle Bearse, MD who was a surgeon, editor-in-chief of the Massachusetts Physician, former president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and Council of the New England State Medical Societies. In her spare time, Dr. Manton worked with the Camp Fire Girls.

Bernice Cohen Sachs, MD (1918-2010) was a pioneer for women in medicine from the time she started her career in medicine to her 48-year-long career in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine practice at Group Health Cooperative. She received a B.A. with distinction from the University of Michigan and an MD with distinction from the University of Michigan Medical School and completed a residency at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois where she met her husband, Allan Eli Sachs, MD. Throughout her career, she received many honors, served on many community boards and was active in numerous medical societies. Most notably, she served as president of many organizations, including the American Medical Women’s Association (1964-1965), the Washington Academy of Clinical Hypnosis, the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, the Seattle Medical Women’s Association, and the American Psychiatric Association. She was the first woman president of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine.

Dr. Sachs was active in the community, serving as Mental Health Chairman of the Montlake School P.T.A., Chairman of the Children’s Program Committee of the local Community Center, on the Board of Directors of the Western Region of the National Jewish Welfare Board, and on the Health and Welfare Council of the Community Chest.  Her interests outside of medicine included sailing, water skiing, fishing, tennis, golf, music, and dancing. The Sachs’ were instrumental in establishing the Jewish Community Center and were active members of Temple de Hirsch.

“Dr. Bea” had an amazing capacity to share her compassionate heart with everyone. She had the endearing ability to connect with people making them feel accepted and important.  Her irresistible, exuberant personality was unforgettable.

Source: JAMWA April 1959 & March 1960, obituary.

Minerva Buerk, MD was a Canadian-born dermatologist who practiced in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania for many years, serving as Chief of Dermatology at the Bryn Mawr Hospital from 1958 to 1969 and later as Consultant in Dermatology at the hospital 1969-1974. During this time, she was a visiting assistant professor at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and later served on the FDA HEW panel of OTC Topical Analgesics.

Dr. Buerk received her BA from University of Buffalo (1941) and her MD from Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (1946). She completed internship at City of Detroit Receiving Hospital and residencies at Johns Hopkins (medicine) and the University of Pennsylvania (dermatology). She was a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, the Society of Investigative Dermatology, and the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. She was an associate of the American College of Physicians and a member of the American Medical Association,

Dr. Buerk served as President of the Philadelphia branch of AMWA and held many national roles in AMWA—Chair of the Student Loans, Fellowships, and Grants Committee, the Nominating and Election Committee, and the Medical Education and Research Fund Committee. As a part of the Executive Board, she was Councilor of Research, Education and Training, Treasurer (1968), First Vice President (1969), and President in 1971. She also served on the Board of Directors for the American Women’s Hospital Service. She was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal by AMWA in 1978.

Dr. Buerk was recognized on the international stage for her work as well, honored as one of six “Distinguished American Women” by the Government of France. She became the National Corresponding Secretary of the Medical Women’s International Association from 1973 to 1975. In 1974, she was Vice-President of North America for MWIA.

In 1977, Daughters of the American Revolution awarded Dr. Buerk the Americanism Medal, their highest national award for outstanding leadership, patriotism, trustworthiness, and service. Outside of medicine, she had many pursuits, including membership in the Cosmopolitan Club of Philadelphia. She was a great musician–having been a concert pianist before entering medicine, lover and creator of art, active gardener, gourmet cook, and avid traveler. As a research associate in the Department of Malacology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, she went on several international expeditions (Madagascar, Grenada) to collect marine mollusks. These excursions were to become a favorite hobby.

“Medicine is a very demanding career, but it’s also one of the most gratifying, both intellectually and emotionally. That’s why it’s a natural for women.” – Minerva Buerk

Eva Dodge, MD was a physician, educator, consultant, and administrator who strove to improve women’s and children’s health throughout her long career in medicine. She was a national pioneer in birth control and women’s and children’s health. Throughout her career, she served as a physician, educator, consultant, and administrator, courageously using her education to fight for the quality of women’s medical care.

She completed her medical education at the Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland Schools of Medicine at a time when there were few women in the medical profession. She was the first woman intern and resident in obstetrics at University Hospital in Baltimore. Her leadership and service were not limited to the United States — her impact extended as far as South America, Europe and even Asia where she worked or taught medicine. She pursued postgraduate study at the University of Vienna and spent time teaching and practicing in Shanghai.

In the US, she helped to organize maternity clinics in North Carolina and Mississippi, more than once finding herself the first woman physician in the area. She became the assistant medical director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

She received recognition for her work in the form of multiple awards — she was named Little Rock “Woman of the Year”, she received the Alumni Honor Award and Gold Key of the Medical Alumni Association of the University of Maryland, and she was elected President of the Pan American Medical Women’s Association. From 1945 until her retirement in 1964, she served as a faculty member of the Medical School of the University of Arkansas and Director of the Maternity and Gynecology Outpatient Department.

Source:

https://www.owu.edu/files/resources/dodge.pdf (accessed Apri 29, 2021)

Edith Petrie Brown, MD graduated from Westminster College in 1923 and received her medical education from the George Washington University Medical School, where she graduated first in her class (1927) and received a prize in Obstetrics. She interned at Grace Hospital in Detroit and completed a residency at Children’s Hospital in Washington D.C. in 1929.

Requiring employment to pay her way through college and medical school, she worked as a calculating machine operator at the U.S. Fuel Administration, as an auditor in the War Department and a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent Office.

Upon completion of her training, Dr. Brown practiced as an assistant physician at Rochester State Hospital in Minnesota and as a resident physician at the Sunny Acres Tuberculosis Hospital in Warrensville, Ohio, and Bedford Hospital in Ohio. After completing a residency in anesthesiology at Bedford Hospital, she stayed on at the hospital to practice as an anesthesiologist from 1949 to 1964. She was Chief of Staff from 1954 to through 1960.

Dr. Brown began to serve as a surveyor for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals in 1964. She continued her career in Arizona, serving as resident physician at Sage Memorial Hospital and Pima County Hospital. While in Arizona, she also conducted pediatric clinics for babies. In 1974, she became a consultant for the Arkansas State Health Department. Dr. Brown also practiced missionary medicine in Kenya, West Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Liberia.

Her active involvement with AMWA began in Cleveland, Ohio, where she served as Secretary, Treasurer, and finally as President of the Cleveland branch of the organization. She was also the founder of the Tucson branch of AMWA. She held office at the national level as well, serving as Chairman of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, Chairman of the Organization and Membership Committee, Chairman of the Nominating Committee, Second Vice President for two terms from 1954 to 1956, First Vice-President in 1956, and President in 1962. She was always invested in encouraging young women to pursue medicine.

She was a member of many medical societies, including the American Medical Association, George Washington University Medical Society, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the Cleveland Area Heart Society, the American Heart Association, the Arizona Heart Association, and more. She served on the National Council on Alcoholism, the Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland, the Association of Physicians and Surgeons, the American Physicians Art Association, and the American Women’s Hospital Service Board of Directors. She was also a Fellow of the American Association of Family Physicians and a recipient of AMWA’s Elizabeth Blackwell Medal by AMWA in 1977.

Under the auspices of the United Presbyterian Church, Dr. Brown and her sister Mary Meyer launched an immunization program that successfully immunized 34,000 children against a virulent strain of measles, resulting in a significant reduction in the incidence of measles in Kenya. After retirement, she volunteered for several medical missions to Kenya, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan – and marveled that at age 70, she would finally fulfill her childhood dream of being a missionary. In 1974, she was the recipient of the Westminster College Humanitarian Award, the highest alumni award from the college.

Outside of medicine, Dr. Brown was active in the Bedford Zonta Club and the Bedford Methodist Church. She enjoyed gardening, art, and photography and won awards for photography and needlework. She was married to William H. Brown who was Assistant Secretary and a patent attorney for the Harhaw Chemical Company. They had two children, Margaret (Ackerman) and Stanley, and raised a young girl from Korea. William Brown passed away in 1969, and years later, she married Howard Ray Osler, a retiree from the Boeing Co.

Biography coming soon.

Ruth Hartgraves, MD was an obstetrician and gynecologist who paved the way for women in medicine through her leadership and mentorship. She received a B.A. from the University of Texas in 1928 and her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston in 1932 and went on to complete her internship at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston and her residency at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children.

Dr. Hartgraves’s career brought her to Houston, where she practiced at Methodist, Hermann, Memorial, St. Luke’s and Jefferson Davis Hospitals until her retirement in 1987. She received many awards from various institutions for her achievements during her long career, including the 1980 Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumnus Award granted by the UTMB School of Medicine, the 1985 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Texas at Austin, and the 1992 Distinguished Professional Women’s Award presented by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She was also a faculty member of Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Hartgraves helped to organize and lead the Houston branch of the American Medical Women’s Association, serving as the branch’s first president and eventually serving as president of the national AMWA organization (1962-1963). Her commitment to the empowerment of women in medicine earned her the Elizabeth Blackwell award. She is the first Texas physician to receive this award.

Outside of medicine, she was a world traveler and an active community member, especially with the Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Ballet Society. She was one of the first three women elected to the Official Board of Stewards of Houston’s St. Luke’s Methodist Church. She also managed a ranch in West Texas.

Born in New York City on October 8, 2013 and raised in Lyndhurst, NJ, Laura Morrow, MD 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.

Looking back over her career, Alice Drew Chenoweth, MD, noted that her hometown of Albany, Missouri, was an unlikely place for a shy child to be transformed into a physician. Yet from her small-town beginnings, she eventually made her way to the nation’s capital, serving in a number of distinguished federal government positions at a time when few women held such posts.

Although medicine was a highly respected career in her family, Alice Chenoweth did not grow up wanting to become a doctor. Her father had dreamed of studying medicine but he could not afford it, and instead became a veterinarian. His son also went into veterinary medicine. Alice Chenoweth eventually fulfilled her father’s dream of having a doctor in the family, but her path was not a straightforward one. After attending junior college in her hometown, she enrolled at Northwestern University in Chicago, receiving her B.S. degree in chemistry with “highest distinction” in 1924. She was considering studying medicine, but her father discouraged it. Thinking the matter closed, she decided to accept a scholarship in history from Northwestern. After receiving an M.A. in 1926, she spent the next two years as an instructor at a women’s college in Montgomery, Alabama.

Alice Chenoweth had not entirely dismissed a future in medicine. In a conversation with a cousin who was dean of women at Vanderbilt University, she said she was considering either a Ph.D. in history or a medical degree. Her cousin immediately arranged an interview for her at Vanderbilt’s School of Medicine, and she was later accepted. When she wrote of her plans to her father, he endorsed her decision, but talked of the “hardships and indignities” she might suffer and his doubts of her physical fitness for the profession. She took up the challenge, consistently rating at the top of her class. Graduating with an M.D. degree in 1932, she interned in pediatrics at Strong Memorial Hospital, the teaching arm of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York, where she met her husband. In 1933 she was accepted as a resident at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, staying on for a second year as assistant chief resident.

Having always enjoyed research, Dr. Chenoweth accepted a research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in 1937, but soon began to miss contact with patients. She decided to join a partner in a pediatrics practice, where she remained for the next four years. In 1941 she married John Pate and they moved to Louisville, Kentucky where he worked for the Kentucky Department of Health. Dr Chenoweth accepted a position as director of Maternal and Child Health in the same department, supervising a staff of nutritionists and a network of clinics for mothers and children. As World War II began, she took on the administration of a wartime program, Emergency Maternity and Infant Care, which provided health care to the families of servicemen and women.

At the end of WWII in 1945, when her husband was transferred to Washington, D.C., Dr. Chenoweth moved with him and their young son, finding work as a research pediatrician in the U.S. Children’s Bureau (later part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare). Not long after, she moved to the Children Bureau’s International Division, where she planned educational programs for fellows from abroad, especially those who dealt with maternal and child health issues.

During the final years of her career until her retirement in 1973, Dr. Chenoweth served as chief of the Division of Health Services in the Children’s Bureau, consulting on state-run programs like those she had administered in Kentucky.

Dr. Chenoweth was also active in professional groups, including the American Medical Women’s Association, the Medical Women’s International Association, the American Public Health Association, the American School Health Association, and the American Board of Pediatrics. She died at age 95 at her home in Alexandria, far from her small-town beginnings. In an autobiographical account, Dr Chenoweth later noted that the life of a physician, wife, and mother was not an easy one, but it was “rewarding and exciting.”

Alma Dea Morani, MD is best known as the first woman plastic surgeon in the United States. A keen artist as well as a talented surgeon, Dr. Morani’s work in the emerging specialty of plastic surgery truly unified the art and the science of medicine.

Alma Dea Morani was born in New York City in 1907, to Amalia Gracci Morani and Salvatore Natali Morani, a sculptor and painter. Her father wanted his daughter to be a sculptor too. He felt that medicine was too aggressive a career for women and that she would waste her artistic talents. He also believed deeply in the value of religious iconography to aid and comfort people, and wondered just how his daughter should contribute to people’s quality of life. As a fifteen-year-old Girl Scout her scout leader gave her training in advanced first-aid. This training, in addition to an abiding interest in biology, inspired Alma Morani to become what she called “a repair doctor.”

After graduating from New York University in 1928, Morani earned her M.D. from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1931. After a year as the first woman college surgical intern at St. James Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, she returned to Woman’s Medical College as the institution’s first woman surgical resident from 1932 to 1935. In 1935, she became an assistant surgeon, a post she held until 1938. She was growing tired of the routine of general surgery required of her to gain entrance into the American College of Surgeons. Between 1938 and 1941, Dr. Morani began to take a serious professional interest in what she viewed as the more creative field of plastic surgery, and in 1941 she was admitted to the American College of Surgeons.

After spending six years trying to find a training course that would accept women, Dr. Morani spent 1946 in St. Louis studying with the renowned plastic surgeon, “Colonel” J. Barrett Brown, M.D. Her fellowship, from a Philadelphia professional organization called the Soroptimist Club, only allowed her to observe, not operate. Making the best of these restrictions and using her skills and training as an artist, she made good use of her observations, making sketches and taking pictures before and after surgical procedures. Her strong work was eventually noticed by Colonel Brown, and he finally allowed her to assist him in surgery “on Saturdays when everybody else went to play golf,” letting her complete a true clinical fellowship. While Dr. Morani described her experiences in St. Louis as an “incomplete internship,” she earned the praise of the difficult Colonel Brown who had specifically noted her persistence and intelligence.

Dr. Morani returned to Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1948, where she served in varied capacities for the next twenty-seven years. She was a lecturer in general surgery until 1950, assistant professor of surgery until 1954, lecturer in plastic surgery until 1970, and finally clinical professor of general surgery and plastic surgery until 1975. Dr. Morani established Philadelphia’s first Hand Surgery Clinic in 1948.

During World War II, Dr. Morani volunteered at Valley Forge Hospital performing reconstructive surgery on wounded soldiers and, through a long-standing involvement with the Medical Women’s International Association, including its directorship from 1972 to 1974, she traveled the world, raising money for clinics in the Philippines, Taiwan, Russia, and the Balkans.

Throughout her life, Dr. Morani maintained her skills as an artist and art collector. When she gave up surgery in 1972 at age 65, she turned her attention to the role of art in medicine, lecturing on the subject, publishing several key articles, and creating the Morani Gallery of Art in 1985 at Woman’s Medical College, making the institution the only medical school in the country to boast its own art collection. Although she and her father argued on and off for thirty years about her career choice, she knew that he always respected her opinion and her choices. As he conceded on his deathbed, she probably made the right choice, as “surgery better helped the living.”

Frieda Baumann, MD was an extraordinary student, teacher, and physician. She completed her undergraduate studies at Pennsylvania State Teacher’s College in 1906 and graduated magna cum laude from the Woman’s Medical College in Pennsylvania in 1917. She interned at New York Infirmary for Women and Children and went on to complete an internship in the New York Infirmary, a residency on the Tuberculosis Service at Bellevue Hospital in New York and a surgery residency at the Scranton State hospital.

She started her teaching career in 1920 as an Instructor of Medicine at her alma mater Woman’s Medical College in Pennsylvania. She became an Assistant Professor in 1928, an Associate Professor of Applied Therapeutics in 1932, and received the title of full Professor in 1937. At the time of her passing, she had taught longer than anyone else on the faculty. She was awarded the 1967 Citation of Woman’s Medical College’s Commonwealth Committee for her work in educating women physicians.

Dr. Bauman believed that the Department of Applied Therapeutics should be combined with the Department of Medicine, and so she gave up her professorship in support of this collaboration. In return, she was given the title of Professor of Medicine in charge of Nutrition and Metabolism. In 1952, she received the Hannah E. Longshore Professorship of Medicine.

Dr. Baumann was a trailblazer for women in medicine as the first woman to serve as a surgical resident at State Hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania as well as the first woman to be appointed Chief of a Medical Service at Philadelphia General Hospital. She was a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a fellow of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Her valuable contributions to AMWA include serving as Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association for five years and serving as president of AMWA Branch 25. She was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal by AMWA in 1971 for her service and leadership.

Photo credit: Drexel University

Rosa Lee Nemir, MD was a pulmonary and pediatrics specialist who paved the way for women in medicine as a doctor, teacher and researcher. Originally from Waco, Texas, Dr. Nemir completed her medical education at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1930.

She spent the entirety of her career at New York University Medical School and Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City, acting as director of the Bellevue Children’s Chest Clinic, medical director for the Adolescent Girls Clinic at the Judson Health Center, and director of Pediatric Laboratories at Gouverneur Hospital.

Dr. Nemir’s research focused largely around tuberculosis. She studied the effects of steroids on TB before antibiotics were discovered as a treatment for the disease. Dr. Nemir followed a group of patients from childhood into their 30s, which led her to pioneer the use of rifampin, a drug that would later become a widely used treatment for tuberculosis in children.

She worked to promote women in the field of medicine and served as president of the American Medical Women’s Association (1963-1964) as well as the North American Vice-President of the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) and MWIA’s representative to the United Nations.

She married E. J. Audi who founded the furniture company E.J. Audi Fine Furniture & Rugs. Her son, Alfred J. Audi and his wife Aminy Audi bought and revitalized L. & J.G. Stickley Furniture, Inc.

Katharine W. Wright, MD (b.1892) was a psychiatrist and dedicated leader of the American Medical Women’s Association. She received her BS from the University of Wisconsin and her MD from the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. She came from a lineage of women who broke barriers during their time. Her grandmother, a suffragist and the daughter of Judge C.B. Waite of Chicago, studied law after her five children were partly grown, so that she could help advocate for women’s rights. Her mother, Jessie Waite Wright—also a suffragist–was in the first class of women who graduated from the University of Chicago. Her father, Dr. George H. Wright was a country physician. During World War I, Dr. Katharine Wright was eager to serve overseas, but her application was not accepted because she was a woman.

Dr. Wright practiced at Elgin State Hospital in Illinois from 1940 to 1943 and served as a research assistant in psychiatry at the University of Illinois from 1942 to 1946, becoming board certified by the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry in 1945. She was an associate at the Psychopathic Hospital and a neuropsychiatric consultant at the Mary Thompson Hospital in Chicago, where she served as director of the Mental Hygiene Clinic. She was also an associate in the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry at Northwestern University and a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the Institute of Medicine in Chicago.

Dr. Wright’s involvement in AMWA began in 1936. She served as President of Branch 2, Chicago, Director of the Northeast Central Region of AMWA, and nationally as Chairman of the Lectureship Committee, Parliamentarian under 7 administrations, Recording Secretary, and eventually President of the national organization in 1958. She represented AMWA at many European meetings of the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) and served as one of five AMWA councilors at the Eighth Congress of MWIA and Vice-President of the Americas for MWIA from 1958 to 1966. She was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal in 1969 for her contributions to furthering women in medicine.

Dr. Wright was a member in many professional associations, including the American Medical Association, the Illinois Psychiatric Society, Chicago Medical Society, Illinois State Medical Society, George Washington Medical Society, Menninger Foundation, George Crerar Library, and the American Association of University Women. She was also an avid traveler.

“There are none of us who achieve our goals in life with completely smooth sailing.”  — Katharine Wright

Margaret Schneider, MD (1905-2002) made great strides in empowering women to pursue medicine throughout her many years of service to AMWA, including presidency in 1966. A graduate of Wittenberg University in 1926, she first began a career as a dietitian. An assignment as cafeteria manager at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine exposed her to the medical field and altered her vocation, leading her to enroll as a medical student there. She continued to work as manager of the cafeteria throughout medical school, completing her MD in 1939.

After her residency in internal medicine at Cincinnati’s Jewish Hospital, she taught physiology at the Cincinnati Medical College, achieving the rank of Assistant Professor before her departure in 1951. While she built her career as an educator, she maintained a private practice affiliated with Deaconess, Jewish, and St. Francis Hospitals in Cincinnati. She served in the cardiac clinic of Cincinnati General Hospital and the Planned Parenthood Clinic and also covered the practices of two internists in a nearby suburb who had been called to military service during World War II.

Dr. Schneider’s expertise in geriatrics earned her a place on the board of the White House Conference on Aging. She also served on the Medical Review Committee of the state of Ohio for nursing homes in Hamilton County supporting Medicaid patients. She was a member of various professional associations–the Academy of General Practice, the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine where she served as chair of the Necrology Committee, the Ohio State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association.

Her involvement with AMWA began with Branch #11 in Southwestern Ohio, where she took on multiple leadership positions including President of the Branch. At the national level of the organization, she served twice as Chairman of the Finance Committee as well as Treasurer, Vice President, and President in 1966. She was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal for her service to AMWA in 1969.

Outside of medicine, Dr. Schneider was President of the Zonta Club and President of the First Lutheran Church Council. She was married to Joseph W. Austin and enjoyed cooking, travel, bridge, needlework, and theater.

Source: AMWA Physician Files

Amey Chappell, MD (1900-1986) was an obstetrician and gynecologist who paved the way for her successors in medicine through her perseverance and advocacy for women.

She was a graduate of Olgethorpe University and received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1930, going on to complete her internship in New Orleans at Touro Infirmary and her residency in Boston at the New England Hospital for Women and Children.

Dr. Chappell overcame financial struggles as well as gender-based prejudice to begin her practice in Atlanta, one of the first few women to do so in the area. She held a faculty position at Emory University Medical School as an instructor in obstetrics. In addition to Emory University, she had staff memberships at Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital, Grady Memorial Hospital, and Good Samaritan Clinic. She belonged to medical societies of Fulton County and Georgia State, as well as the Southern Medical Association.

Dr. Chappell began her leadership in AMWA at the local level, serving as President of her local chapter and then nationally as Director of the South Atlantic Area, Chairman of the Publication Committee, and AMWA President from 1951 to 1952. She was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal by AMWA for her extensive service in 1967 and in 1968 was named Atlanta’s “woman of the year.”

Outside of medicine, Dr. Chappell was President of the Young Women’s Christian Association of Metropolitan Atlanta, a trustee of Piedmont College, and an active member of Chi Omega, Alpha Epsilon Iota, Le Conte Scientific, League for Women Voters, Active Voters, and the Congregational Church. She enjoyed gardening, collecting china cow pitchers and wooden dogs, and traveling.

Sources:

Gambrell, Elizabeth W.  “Amey Chappell, M.D.:  Thirty-fifth President of the American Medical Women’s Association”  JAMWA vol 6, No 9 p. 356.

Obituary (The Atlanta Constitution)

Esther Marting, MD (b.1908) received her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati Medical School in 1932, following in the footsteps of her two older sisters, Dr. Ann and Dr. Miriam. She completed her internship and residency at Cincinnati General Hospital in pathology, going on to study tumor diagnosis and therapy at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Memorial Hospital in New York City, Howard A. Kelley Hospital in Baltimore, Marie Curie Hospital in London, and Curie Institute in Paris.

In 1937, after completing her studies, Dr. Marting served as assistant director of the Cincinnati General Hospital Tumor Clinic before being appointed director of the Clinic in 1939. She also served as the assistant director of the Chicago Tumor Institute during World War II.

Dr. Marting turned to private practice in 1946, specializing in tumor diagnosis and radiation therapy. She was a member of many organizations, including the American Medical Association, Ohio State Medical Association, American Board of Radiology, American College of Radiology, Ohio State Radiological Society, and the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine where she was Secretary from 1950 to 1951.

Her leadership in AMWA included serving as Secretary in 1951-1952 and President 1955-1956. She was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal in 1966 for her outstanding leadership and service to women in medicine.

In her personal life, Dr. Marting was married to Dr. Howard D. Fabing and together they had three children, Susannah, Priscilla, and Howard William. She was an active participant in PTA meetings and was president of the Zonta Club of Cincinnati from 1951 to 1953. Her hobbies including sculpturing and she created portrait busts of various professors at the University of Cincinnati Medical College.

Camille Mermod, MD (d. 1976) was born in Switzerland and came to the U.S. with her family at the age of 13. She spent her undergraduate years at Mills College in California before attending Stanford University for her medical degree and graduating in 1932. She taught clinical pathology at Stanford the next six years. In 1935, she also became assistant pathologist of Alameda County hospitals, then moved east after four years to work as the pathologist of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

During World War II, Dr. Mermod was an assistant pathologist for six New Jersey Hospitals: St. Barnabas Hospital, St. James Hospital, Irvington General Hospital, Overlook Hospital, and Middlesex Hospital. After the war, she had a private practice in internal medicine, running her own laboratory with diagnostic testing in chemistry, bacteriology, and pathology.  She was also a consulting pathologist at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., an attending physician at St. Barnabas Hospital, where she served as chief of the Department of Medicine from 1955 to 1957, and chairman of the Essex County Medical Society’s Public Health Committee.

Her extensive involvement with AMWA included serving as the national president for two terms (1954-1955 and 1956-1957), only the second president to do so. During her involvement with AMWA, she held multiple roles — second vice-president, chairman of the Membership and International committees, Branch Four treasurer for multiple terms, and editor of the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association (JAMWA). She was recognized in 1959 as Medical Woman of the Year by AMWA Branch Four (New Jersey) and awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal by AMWA in 1965 for her outstanding leadership and dedication in advancing women in medicine.

Outside of medicine, Dr. Mermod enjoyed weaving, gardening, and cooking.

Sources:

“Medical Women of the Year.” JAMWA 14:12 (Dec 1959), 1098-1108.

Geib, E. “Camille Mermod, M.D.” JAMWA Vol. 9, no. 9 (Sept. 1954), 298.

JAMWA Jan 1966, Vol. 21, no. 1

Obituary, New York Times, 1976

Helena T. Ratterman, MD (b. 1882) attended the University of Cincinnati for both her undergraduate education and her medical degree (1914). She established herself in practice with her father, Dr. Bernard J. Ratterman, and was affiliated with the Department of Obstetrics at her alma mater. After becoming the medical director of the Maternity Society of Cincinnati, she established the first institution of prenatal care in Cincinnati, starting with a small clinic at the University of Cincinnati and later expanding to clinics throughout the city.

Dr. Ratterman was Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics at the University of Cincinnati Medical School and served as a consultant to the obstetric service of Cincinnati General Hospital. She was appointed acting assistant surgeon of the Public Health Service during the influenza epidemic of 1918 to 1919 to lead emergency work in Delaware. She would continue to be a first to volunteer for relief duty at other times during her life. Later in her career, she would also turn from obstetrics to the field of geriatrics, where her faculty for understanding and counseling was well-received.

Dr. Ratterman was a staunch advocate for the commissioning of women physicians in the Armed Forces. She would testify before Congress on this topic and ask that women physicians “be given a square deal.” Eventually, the military gave full benefits and commissions to women physicians in World War II.

Dr. Ratterman became involved in AMWA with the goal of perpetuating opportunities for other women. After participation in multiple AMWA committees, she became President of the association in 1942. She established the Cincinnati branch of AMWA (Branch Eleven) and was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal in 1964 for her leadership and dedication to women in medicine.

Dr. Ratterman’s pursuits outside of medicine included athletics – particularly tennis and golf. She played tennis on the University of Cincinnati’s intercollegiate team and went on to win the Tri State tennis title, the Ohio State title, and the Hamilton County title.

Sources:

Gardner, Mabel. “Helena T. Ratterman, MD.” JAMWA, Vol. 9, No. 12 (December 1954), 412.

Grad, Marjorie A. “Cincinnati Women Physicians.” The Woman Physician 25:11 (November 1970), 735-736.

Appointment of Female Physicians and Surgeons in the Medical Corps of the Army and Navy , 1942. https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/ext/dw/14211180R/PDF/14211180R.pdf

Dr. Bernard J. Ratterman obiturary. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9189844/the-cincinnati-enquirer/

Elizabeth S. Waugh, MD was born in Philadelphia in 1904 and spent all of her year of medical practice in Philadelphia, the “city of brotherly love.” She received her BA from Wellesley College in 1927 and received her MD from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1931. She completed her internship and residency at the Woman’s Medical College, Hospital of Pennsylvania and became board certified in obstetrics and gynecology in 1942.

Dr. Waugh began her private practice in the YWCA in Germantown, Philadelphia. She held several teaching positions at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania where she was later became a Clinical Professor. She served as Chief of Obstetrics at the Woman’s Hospital in West Philadelphia.

She was president of AMWA from 1950-1951 and was chairman of publication of the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association (JAMWA) from 1952 to 1960. She was also a member of the AMA, Philadelphia County Medical Society, American College of Surgeons, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Philadelphia Club for Medical Women.

In 1963, she received AMWA’s Elizabeth Blackwell Award, and in 1971, she received  Commonwealth Committee of the Medical College of Pennsylvania.

She never married but had a niece and nephews who were her family, in addition to the many babies that she delivered. In her spare time, Dr. Waugh enjoyed gardening, photography, and painting.

Sources:

Physician File, The Legacy Center, Drexel University College of Physicians and Surgeons

Elizabeth S. Waugh Biography ©Daniel C. Waugh and Carol Ann Waugh, 1994

Judith Ahlem, MD received her medical degree from the Medical School of the University of Southern California in 1921 and pursued postgraduate studies in psychiatry at the University of Vienna Alfred Adler School of Psychology, graduating in 1926. She completed an internship at Alameda County Hospital and residencies in California and Michigan at the Arroyo Del Valle Tuberculosis Sanitarium and Traverse City State Hospital. For many years, she practiced at the Livermore Sanatorium for Nervous and Mental Disease in Livermore, California, eventually becoming the senior psychiatrist there. She later moved to Alaska and became director of the Mental Health Clinic in Anchorage. Over the course of her career, she lectured extensively on mental health and socialized medicine.

She was president of the American Medical Women’s Association from 1953-1954 and was awarded AMWA’s Elizabeth Blackwell Award in 1962.

She was born to Nordic parents on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in Nebraska where she lived until the age of 7 when her family moved to central California. She was the oldest of six children who learned to help out on the California ranch, where they raised everything from cattle to nuts. During her last year in high school, she was once left in charge of supervising her five younger siblings (the youngest only 3 years old), running the ranch, and going to school while her parents were on a prolonged trip to Europe.

She married Walter T. Nilson, an attorney, and had a son and two daughters. Her interests included social anthropology, poetry, painting, and travel. She was active in the Alameda County Medical Society and was the first president of the Soroptomist Club of Livermore.

On Christmas Eve, 1928, she was a passenger on a bus which skid on the ice. She suffered multiple injuries and had to have an artificial leg. In a Washington Post interview in 1954, she reflected, “I knew that I’d never again be able to hike or swim—things that had meant a great deal to me. But I also knew that what happens to you isn’t important. What does matter is how you react to life’s ‘slings and arrows.’”

Sources:

Summers, E. Laws Demand Respect. The Washington Post, For and about Women. Feb. 19, 1054, page 45.

Mermod, C. Judith Ahlem, MD: Thirty-Seventh President of the American Medical Women’s Association. JAMWA, 1953, 8:9: p. 311.

Physician File, The Legacy Center, Drexel University Archives and Special Collections

Elizabeth Kittredge, MD attended Vassar College and Columbia University for her undergraduate degree (1912) and master’s degree (1915) respectively before accepting a scholarship to attend medical school at Johns Hopkins University.

She interned at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. in 1922 and returned to Vassar College for a year to serve as a physician and an instructor in physiology and hygiene. She spent time in private practice, working in public clinics that allowed her to achieve balance between her career and family life.

Dr. Kittredge was elected to the D.C. Medical Society in 1926 and served on the staff of the Child Welfare Clinic of Children’s Hospital. She also worked as a physician for the Maternal and Child Health Clinics in Washington and for the Board of Public Welfare of the District of Columbia. Dr. Kittredge was considered a pioneer in establishing Planned Parenthood Clinics.

She was a member of the District of Columbia Medical Society and the Women’s Medical Society of the District of Columbia and was a Fellow of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Kittredge served as the executive secretary of AMWA and was editor of the first regular publication of the association, Women in Medicine, and also editor of other AMWA publications, including Year Book. She was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell medal in 1961 for her devotion to amplifying women in medicine.

Outside of medicine, Dr. Kittredge served on the board of trustees of the All Souls Unitarian Church. She was married to Herbert L. Whittemore, former chief of engineers for the National Bureau of Standards. They had a daughter, Nancy, and a son, William.

Source:

Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, March 1962

AMWA Physician Files

Nelle Noble, MD was born in 1878 in Casey, Iowa. She attended Drake University, earning a Bachelor of Philosophy (1898), a Master of Arts (1899) and a Bachelor of Laws (1900). After graduating, she practiced law for two years before deciding instead on a career in medicine. She earner her MD at Drake University (1905) and became the first woman intern at the Methodist Hospital in Des Moines.

Over her 44-year career, Dr. Noble treated four generations of families as a general practitioner. She was also Medical Examiner for women at Drake University. She served as AMWA President from 1939-1940. Besides her contributions to AMWA, she was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a regent of the Abigail Adams chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a matron of the Des Moines Order of the Eastern Star, president of the League of Women Voters, president of the women’s division of the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, president of the Professional Women’s League, and president of the Medical Women of the State Society of Iowa. As vice-chairman of the health committee of the women’s division of the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, she helped organized six service programs, including one that benefitted the poor and underprivileged families in Des Moines and one for visiting nursing homes to spend time with the elderly and the sick. The Women’s Division of the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce awarded her the “Woman of the Year” award in 1952. In 1956, she received a Distinguished Service award from Drake University, and in 1960, she received AMWA’s Elizabeth Blackwell Medal. She was recognized in 1961 as Medical Woman of the Year (AMWA Branch 19).  She was a member of the Human Betterment League of Iowa, the Christian University of Japan, the Human Betterment Leagues of America, and Hillcrest Hospital. She is  Phi Beta Kappa and an active member of the University Church of Christ.  She was a trustee of the University, a director of the Iowa Humane Society, and Past Matron of the Des Moines Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Her hobbies included foreign travel and gardening. An avid travel, her trip have included two trips around the world.

Dr. Noble was often described as being modest, kind, considerate and altruistic, always offering her medical services without giving thought to fees. Her outstanding work as a physician and prominent member of the community made her an inspiring role model for other women physicians during a time when a growing number of women were entering the medical field.

Helen Schrack, MD received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Syracuse and her medical degree from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. After graduation from medical school in 1923, she interned at the Harrisburg State Hospital in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Schrack was affiliated with the Department of Urology at Cooper Hospital in Camden, NJ from 1925 to 1960. During this time, she served as a delegate to the New Jersey State Medical Society and acted as chairman of the History Committee of the Camden County Medical Society. She was a member of the Soroptimist Club and the Business and Professional Women’s Association.

Dr. Schrack was an active member of AMWA for more than 25 years, serving in a multitude of roles. She was first, second, and third Vice-President and Secretary of the national association and a Regional Director of the North Atlantic District. She was appointed the chairman of the first Publications Committee in 1946, who presented the first issue of the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association (JAMWA). Locally, she served as treasurer and president of the New Jersey Branch of AMWA. Internationally, she served as Councilor of the Medical Women’s International Association. She was presented the Elizabeth Blackwell Award by AMWA in 1959 for her exemplary service to women in medicine.

Her interests outside of medicine included oil painting, for which she was awarded a cup and two medals of merit by the Physicians Art Association.

Ada Chree Reid, MD (1895-1974) received her medical degree from Cornell University Medical College and enjoyed productive career in cardiac and pulmonary care. She served as Chief of the Cardiology Clinic of the New York Infirmary and the physician in charge of chest work at the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Her work in developing effective early diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis helped advance care in that field.

Dr. Reid believed that women physicians should participate in public activities outside of practicing medicine and worked to develop constructive relationships between medical women and other professional groups in this country and abroad. She was a consultant to the Procurement and Assignment Service of the War Manpower Commission during World War II, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association (JAMWA) from 1947-1952, member of the Board of Directors of the American Women’s Hospitals Service, and member of the Board of Directors of the National Citizens Committee for the World Health Organization. She was also a Fellow of American College of Chest Physicians. In 1958, she was awarded AMWA’s Elizabeth Blackwell Medal for her impactful contributions to advancing women in medicine.

Dr. Reid became president of the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 1950 and in her inauguration speech spoke of the need for better international understanding and the important role of medical women in this arena. During her years as president, she visited member associations around the world.

Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy, MD 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.

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.

Evangeline S. Stenhouse, MD received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago (1916) and after teaching high school for two years and working with the Young Women’s Christian Association, she enrolled in Rush Medical College, receiving her MD in 1931. She completed her internship at Swedish Covenant Hospital and went on to complete three years of specialty training at the University of Chicago before entering private practice in 1935 and becoming board-certified in dermatology in 1938.

Dr. Stenhouse was associated with the Student Health Service of the University of Chicago and with the Department of Dermatology, University of Chicago Clinics. She co-founded the Cancer Prevention Center of Chicago. In addition to private practice, she was a consulting dermatologist at the Mary Thompson Hospital, where she served for a time as president of the medical staff. She also served on the staff of Chicago Memorial Hospital, Illinois Central Hospital, and Swedish Covenant Hospital. She was a Fellow of the American Medical Association and member of the Chicago Dermatological Society, the Academy of Dermatology and Syphiology, the International Congress of Dermatology, and the International Society of Tropical Dermatology.

Dr. Stenhouse was an active member of the AMWA, having served as president from 1951-1953, director of the North Central Region, Chairman of Reference Committee A and the Finance Committee, secretary, chairman of various committees, and president of the AMWA Chicago Branch Two. In 1956, she was the recipient of the Elizabeth Blackwell Award for her devoted service to AMWA.

Her pursuits outside of medicine included cooking, music, theater, and travel.

Elise Strang L’Esperance, MD 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”

Mabel E. Gardner, MD received her undergraduate training at Otterbein College and her medical degree from the Ohio Miami Medical School (now University of Cincinnati Medical School). This was a pioneering act in itself, as she was part of the first graduating class to include women. She completed her internship at the Mary Thompson Hospital in Chicago and stayed in the Chicago area for her surgical training where she trained under Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen.

When she started her practice in Middletown in 1915, Dr. Gardner was the city’s first female doctor. She also played a significant role in the founding of Middletown’s first hospital. She was appointed to assistant clinical instructor at the University of Cincinnati Medical School in 1926, remaining in this position until 1941. In 1936, she was appointed the chief of the obstetric staff and instructor of nurses at the Middletown Hospital, a position she held until 1950. In her 50+ years of practice, it was reported that she delivered more than 10,000 Middletown babies.

Dr. Gardner held a number of leadership roles such as secretary and president of the Butler County Medical Association, president of the Middletown Hospital staff, and member of the Middletown Board of Health. She was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. She was also active in civic improvement projects in her community, especially initiatives to improve national health standards, the cancer crusade, tuberculosis prevention, and girls’ clubs. She was on the alumnae board of the University of Cincinnati Medical School and served as president for one year.

Dr. Gardner was an active member of the Southwestern Ohio Branch of AMWA. Her contributions and involvement led her to serve as the national AMWA President from 1947 to 1948. She was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell award in 1956 for her efforts and dedication to women in medicine.

Source:
“Pioneer Woman Doctor is Dead.” Middletown Journal, April 24

MacFarland, D and Ratterman, H. “Mabel E. Gardner, MD.” JAMWA 9:12 (Dec 1954), 411.

“Celebrating 100 Years.” Atrium Medical Center Foundation

Mary Elizabeth Bass, MD (1876-1956); MD 1904 Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania; First woman faculty member at Tulane University’s medical school

Dr. Bass was a pioneering woman in the School of Medicine, being one of the first two women appointed to its faculty to finally break the gender barrier in 1911. Elizabeth was born in Mississippi to Isaac and Eliza Bass. After graduating from the local high school, Elizabeth earned a teaching certificate and spent several years teaching public school in Mississippi and Texas. Her brother Charles graduated from Tulane School of Medicine in 1899 and soon began to encourage Elizabeth and their sister Cora to also attend medical school. The only problem was that women were not allowed to attend medical school in the South, so in 1900, Elizabeth and Cora traveled north to attend the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, from which Elizabeth graduated in 1904. She returned to New Orleans after her graduation only to find that female doctors were barred from the city’s hospitals. With five other women, Elizabeth helped to establish the New Orleans Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children (later Sara Mayo Hospital) in 1905. There, women physicians could use their skills to provide medical care to other women and children of the city who had limited means.

In 1911, Elizabeth began her career at Tulane; she and Edith Ballard were the first women faculty members at the School of Medicine. It would be four more years before women would be admitted as students. Elizabeth started out as assistant demonstrator in surgical pathology, and after two years she advanced to instructor in the laboratory of clinical medicine. She became a full professor in 1920 and spent a total of 30 years teaching at Tulane. Elizabeth was the first woman admitted to the Orleans Parish Medical Society and the first one to hold a major office in the Society (secretary, 1920-22; vice president, 1923). She was also the editor of the OPMS Bulletin for many years. She served as president of the American Medical Women’s Association (1921-1922) and founded its New Orleans group.

Elizabeth retired in 1941, but due to a shortage of doctors during World War II, she entered into private practice and became the house physician at the Jung Hotel in New Orleans. She also lectured on women’s history in medicine, and through her contacts and associations, she collected a vast array of materials pertaining to women in medicine that were donated to the Rudolph Matas Library of the Health Sciences. The Elizabeth Bass Collection consists of newspaper clippings, pictures, photographs, glass magic lantern slides, books and medical school catalogs.

Elizabeth was recognized by the Alumnae Association of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in June 1952 for “her distinguished service in medical education and research and her inspiring interest in literature by and about women in medicine.” In 1953, she was honored with the Elizabeth Blackwell Centennial medal of the American Medical Women’s Association.

Elizabeth was active in the Equal Rights Association of New Orleans, which was composed of leading women in the city and lobbied aggressively for women’s suffrage and child labor laws. The Association was also instrumental in the decision to admit women to professional medical organizations and medical classes, as well as in the appointment of women physicians to the medical teaching staffs in Louisiana during the early part of the 20th century.

In addition to her amazing accomplishments in the medical field, Elizabeth was an avid traveler and a devoted member of Le Petit Théatre du Vieux Carré. After her death in 1956, the Tulane Medical School created a fund in her name to support women pursuing a career in medicine as a tribute to her lifelong dream of improving opportunities for women in the medical field.

Catharine MacFarlane, MD helped to bring better care to women when she established one of the nation’s first uterine cancer screening programs and actively promoted cancer-screening for women. She was also the first woman fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the first woman president of the Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia.

Born in 1877 near Philadelphia, Catharine MacFarlane was an only child. She credited her mother with inspiring her choice of profession, describing her as woman of “rare wisdom and judgment.” Dr. MacFarlane lived with and cared for her mother until she died in 1957 at age 101.

In 1936, Dr. MacFarlane was appointed to head the Medical Women’s National Association (renamed the American Medical Women’s Association in 1937), and was the first woman president of the Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia in 1943. After co-founding the Cancer Control Research Project at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1938, she went on to help establish the first uterine cancer screening program in Philadelphia—one of the earliest such programs in the nation. Combining her research career with teaching, during Dr. MacFarlane’s extraordinarily long tenure at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania she advanced from instructor in obstetrics in 1898 to professor of gynecology in 1922 and in 1942, research professor of gynecology.

Catharine MacFarlane, affectionately known as “Doctor Kitty Mac,” dedicated her life to medicine as a physician, educator, and medical researcher. In 1893, at the age of 16, she entered the University of Pennsylvania, where she completed a two-year course in biology. Four years later, at age 23, she earned her M.D. from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. She did postgraduate work in gynecological urology at Johns Hopkins University, and during several European tours studied with some of the world’s leading experts in obstetrics and gynecology. Often described as a dignified woman with a formidable intellect and temper, she was a pioneer in the detection and treatment of uterine cancer. Always one to speak her mind, Catharine MacFarlane also strongly advocated women’s right to vote and to obtain birth control, often supporting these controversial causes in public, including an appearance with Margaret Sanger at the first Pennsylvania State Conference on Birth Control in 1922. The central aspect of Dr. MacFarlane’s professional life, however, was her commitment to research and to medical treatment and training for women.

Throughout her career, Dr. MacFarlane was tenacious in her support of medical treatment and education of women. While attending the Medical Women’s International Association meeting in Scotland in 1937, for example, she suggested to a colleague that a periodic pelvic exam for asymptomatic women would be the best way to discover pelvic cancer in its earliest and most curable phase. But her suggestion was discouraged. According to, Dr. Louisa Martindale, the association’s president, few women would consent to be examined for a disease for which they had no symptoms. In her memoirs, recorded in Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Dr. MacFarlane returned home determined to prove that women would participate in the preventive care programs she advocated.

In 1942, at age 65, Dr. MacFarlane turned down an emeritus position and instead accepted the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania’s offer to become a research professor, a position she held until her death in 1969.

Recognizing her later success in establishing cancer screening programs for women, Dr. MacFarlane received the Gimbel Award for humanitarian service in 1949 as well as the coveted Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 1951—one of the world’s most distinguished medical research awards.

Dr. MacFarlane managed to find the time to practice medicine, maintain a gynecological practice in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and make house calls on her patients. She even continued to perform surgery into her 90s. In the words of a former student and colleague, she was a woman with “a keen mind, a tremendous sense of duty, a delightful sense of humor, and a superb self-confidence.”

Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy, MD 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.

Mary Noble, MD (1872-1965) received her BA from Colorado College (1896) and her MD from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (1901). After internship at the Women’s Hospital in Philadelphia, she went to India as a medical missionary at the Christian’s Women’s Medical College in Ludhiana, Punjab, North India (1903-1913). She was also Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics in North India School of Medicine.  Upon her return to the United States, she worked in public health and later became Chief of the Division of Child Hygiene in the Pennsylvania Department of Health (1920-1936). She published the Pennsylvania Baby Book, “noted to be a bestseller rivalled only by Dr. Spock.” During World War I, she was a Lecturer on Social Morality under the National Board of the YWCA. She was a fellow of the American Medical Association, a fellow of the American College of Physicians, and an Honorary Member of the American Pediatrics Society. She was a long-time treasurer of AMWA, serving in that position for 18 years from 1933 to 1951. She was recognized for this long-time service to the association with the 1949 Elizabeth Blackwell Centennial Award, known in subsequent years as the Elizabeth Blackwell Annual Award.

Dr. Noble was active in her local community through projects, women’s clubs, in the Presbyterian Church.

Sources:

Alumni Newsletter, Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, July 1965

Physician Files, The Legacy Center, Archives and Special Collections, Drexel University, College of Medicine