Eliza Lo Chin, M.D., has drawn inspiration from her female colleagues who strive to combine family responsibilities with a career in medicine. She has collected their experiences in her book, This Side of Doctoring: Reflections From Women in Medicine, published in 2002. For her continuing work on women’s issues in medicine, Dr. Chin was nominated for the New York branch of the American Medical Women’s Association’s Outstanding Woman Physician Award for the year 2000.
The first Māori woman to become a medical doctor.
Dr. Edith Irby Jones was the first woman to be elected president of the National Medical Association and the first African American student to attend the University of Arkansas School of Medicine (now the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences).
Dr. Elena Rios was one of the founders of the National Network of Latin American Medical Students and the National Hispanic Medical Association.
Dr. Catharine Kincaid was the first American Indian to receive a fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health/American Psychiatric Association.
Dr. Cecilia Romero has helped more than 500 young doctors better serve their Hispanic patients.
Dr. Clara Brawner was the only practicing African American woman physician in Memphis in the mid-1950s.
Dr. Clarice Reid began her education in the segregated schools of Birmingham, Alabama, and went on to become director of the Division of Blood Diseases and Resources, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health.
In 1960, during her first month at the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey took a bold stance against inadequate testing and corporate pressure when she refused to approve release of thalidomide in the United States. The drug had been used as a sleeping pill and was later proven to have caused thousands of birth deformities in Germany and Great Britain.
Internal medicine physician, social epidemiologist, and health services researcher who was among the first to document how doctor-patient relationships can help overcome racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare.
One of the nation’s leading researchers and practitioners in the field of health equity, having designed innovative approaches to improve physicians’ communication skills, patients’ self-management skills, and the ability of healthcare organizations to address the needs of populations experiencing health disparities.
Recipient of numerous awards, including the American Public Health Association Helen Rodríguez-Trías Social Justice Award.
Awarded the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 2007.
Author of the book Why Are Health Disparities Everyone’s Problem?.
Member of U.S. National Academy of Medicine.