The Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health
In 1999, the Center for Women founded the Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health, which honors one of Emory's most beloved and respected citizens. Mary Lynn Morgan graduated in 1943 from Atlanta-Southern Dental College, which became the Emory University School of Dentistry the following year. In 1947, Dr. Morgan began to develop a practice exclusive to pediatric dentistry, which she continued until 1976.
Dr. Morgan was elected to the Emory Board of Trustees in 1974, the second woman to serve. Her affiliations with Emory have been vast and varied over the years. She was named as a trustee emerita in 1991.
The Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture brings to campus women who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to the vast and varied field of women’s health. Past lecturers have included academics, clinicians, nonprofit leaders, and leading advocates both within and outside of Emory.
Past Lectures
Loretta Ross is an award-winning, nationally recognized expert on racism and racial justice, women's rights, and human rights. Her work emphasizes the intersectionality of social justice issues and how intersectionality can fuel transformation.
Rev. Dr. Rebecca Todd Peters is a Professor of Religious Studies and the Director of the Poverty and Social Justice Program at Elon University. Her work as a feminist social ethicist is focused on globalization, economic, environmental, and reproductive justice. Her first book, In Search of the Good Life: The Ethics of Globalization won the 2003 Trinity Book Prize and her second monograph, Solidarity Ethics: Transformation in a Globalized World, was published in January 2014 with Fortress Press.
Staci Fox, President, and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast (PPSE). PPSE is a nonprofit organization that provides vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to people across Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Staci also serves as president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates, a 501(c)4 organization, and as Chair of the Vote Choice Steering Committee, a PAC focused on electing candidates who support reproductive choice.
Marla Stewart - Velvet Lips, Marla Stewart is a professional sex, intimacy and relationship coach and sex educator. Not only is she a lecturer at Clayton State University, she is also the co-founder of the Sex Down South Conference and the Sexual Liberation Collective. Gaining her reputation for being “The Sex Architect,” she created Velvet Lips to empower people of all ages to embrace, educate and enjoy their sexuality and their sexual lives. She has studied human sexuality for more than 16 years at San Francisco State University and Georgia State University, respectively, and has expert knowledge in a wide variety of subjects. She has published academic articles and continues to do sexuality research. She has conducted workshops at conferences, not-for-profit and private organizations, as well as universities in the Atlanta area. She has been featured on many radio shows, documentaries, books, magazines and has been invited to speak at Universities around the country. She also sits on the board for the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition and SPARK Reproductive Justice Now!
Lee Giordano - Men Stopping Violence, Lee Giordano is a community organizer and violence prevention advocate interested in building and sustaining communities of men dedicated to using anti-oppression frameworks to end male violence against women. He utilizes his knowledge and experience to invite others with privilege into conversations about oppression.
The 2015 Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health: "Beyond Wellness: Women Flourishing on Purpose" presented by Paula Collins, took place on December 1, 2015, in Winship Ballroom of the Dobbs University Center.
Paula Collins is the founding partner of Simply Flourishing, a serial entrepreneur, rainmaker, deep thinker, and artist. Paula has an uncanny ability to put people at ease while helping them have fun as they learn and grow.
The 2014 Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health - "Leadership Matters" presented by Dr. Nadine J. Kaslow, took place on November 19, 2014, in the Miller-Ward Alumni House.
Dr. Kaslow is the 2014 President of the American Psychological Association, the Editor of the Journal of Family Psychology, and the Psychologist for the Atlanta Ballet Company. Her lecture, "Leadership Matters," discussed the joys and challenges of being a leader.
The 2013 Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health - "Women's Health at the Intersection: Race, Social Position, and Class." presented by Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, took place on December 5, 2013, in the Miller-Ward Alumni House.
Dr. Montgomery Rice is the sixth President of the Morehouse School of Medicine. She is a renowned infertility specialist and researcher and most recently served as dean and executive vice president of MSM, where she served since 2011. In this role, she led MSM’s widespread academic and clinical programs in health sciences and led its strategic planning initiatives for patient care, research and community engagement.
The 2012 Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health - "Violence Against Women: Implications for Healthcare and Society," featuring Dr. Debra Houry - took place on December 11, 2012, in the Rollins School of Public Health Claudia Nance Rollins Building, 8th Floor, Lawrence P. and Ann Estes Klamon Room
Each day in the United States, 3 women are killed by a partner and 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner. Intimate partner violence is the leading cause of injury for women in the United States today. Not only does this violence result in significant morbidity and mortality from trauma, but it also leads to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other chronic health conditions. The financial impact is alarming: $5.8 billion annually, with $4.1 billion for direct medical and mental health care services.How can we begin to address this problem? Intimate partner violence is a multi-faceted public health problem that requires an interdisciplinary approach. This talk will discuss identifying and
Dr. Debra Houry, MD, MPH, is Vice-Chair for Research and Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and in the Department of Behavioral Science and Health Education and Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Rollins School of Public Health.
She is currently the Director of the Center for Injury Control, one of 11 CDC funded Injury Control Research Centers and 1 of 2 university-based WHO centers on violence prevention and trauma. She teaches several courses on violence and injury prevention at Emory. Her primary research interests are in the prevention of violence against women, mental health issues related to violence, and emergency care. She has been the Principal Investigator on several federally funded grants including \"Computer-based screening for Domestic Violence and Mental Health Symptoms\" and \"Safety and Effectiveness of Computer screening for Domestic Violence Victims ! and Perpetrators\". Dr. Houry has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on injury prevention and violence. Dr. Houry has been the recipient of several national awards, including the Jay Drotman Award, given annually by the American Public Health Association for the most outstanding young public health professional in the country (2002) and the first Linda Saltzman Memorial Intimate Partner Violence Researcher Award from the Institute on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma (2007). She is an Associate Editor for Annals of Emergency Medicine. She serves on the board of the Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research and is the newly elected 2011-2012 president for the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.
The 2011 Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health - "Collaborative Care: What Advances in Breast Cancer Can Teach Us About Reforming TheHealth Care System," featuring Dr. Lee Gravatt Wilke - took place on Thursday, December 1 at 5:30 PM at the Miller-Ward Alumni House. Click here to watch the video.
Dr. Wilke is the Director of the University of Wisconsin Breast Center and an Associate Professor of Surgery. Her breast cancer research has been featured on ABC World News Tonight, and in 2008 she received the Triangle Business Journal Health Care Hero’s Award for Physician Excellence.
Before the growth of collaborative centers of excellence in cardiovascular disease, obesity, geriatrics and others; breast health specialists built multi-disciplinary centers and programs to analyze outcomes; working in tandem to identify the best therapies for the prevention, treatment, and follow-up for individuals with breast disease. Since the 1970s, oncologists from the fields of surgery, medicine, radiation, radiology, and pathology have collaborated to uncover the least invasive and most effective means of eradicating breast malignancies. This work has been done in intimate collaboration with the patients as advocates and supportive partners. Through clinical trials, novel surgical techniques and adjuvant therapies have and continue to be tested; becoming the backbone of our many cancer care guidelines. Though they are a maze of “word salads”, the MQSA, NQMBC, NABPC, ASBS, SSO, ACS, and NCCN all provide collaborative groups to ensure that the best quality metrics are identified and vetted for distribution to the breast care teams across the country. It is through this rich history in collaborative care, research and quality improvement that breast care teams can provide informative stepping stones for health care reform. In the past 2 years, our government has asked that we “improve quality and prevent disease”. The multi-disciplinary breast care teams have a wealth of experience in these excellent objectives, both good and bad; and can provide insight into how best to accomplish these goals. This talk focused on the history of collaborative breast care and how past experiences can be used to perhaps inform our health care system of the future.
Dr. Wilke had a discussion with leading breast cancer researchers at Emory:
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| Ruth O’Regan, MD | Mylin Torres, MD | Amelia Zelnak, MD |
2010 Elizabeth Blake
Elizabeth Blake was selected as the twelfth speaker in the Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health. Her lecture was titled "Housing, Health, and Women: Partners Against Poverty." She presented at the Miller-Ward Alumni House.
Ms. Blake currently serves as Senior Vice President – Advocacy, Government Affairs & General Counsel of Habitat For Humanity International Inc., a non-profit organization that through local partnerships seeks to build affordable housing for families in need in 93 countries around the world.
In her corporate career, Ms. Blake served as Vice President and Chief of Staff at Cinergy Corp and subsequently as Vice President and General Counsel of GE Power Systems, then General Electric’s largest industrial business. Thereafter, she served as Senior Vice President of Trizec Properties, a publicly traded real estate investment trust and later as Executive Vice President of US Airways. Ms. Blake was a Partner of the firm of Frost & Jacobs prior to joining Cinergy and had begun her career at Davis Polk & Wardwell. Ms. Blake served on the Board of Patina Oil & Gas Corporation from 1998 through its sale to Noble Energy in 2005. (NYSE)
Ms. Blake currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of BioFuel Energy Corp, Summit Housing Partners, and is an active member of the System Board of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. In addition, she has served on numerous charitable and civic boards, chaired the development of a $92 million performing arts center and was appointed by the Governor of Ohio to the Ohio Board of Regents of which she served as the first woman chair.
She received her JD from Columbia University School of Law as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and her BA with honors from Smith College.
2009 Dr. Linda McCauley
Dr. Linda McCauley was selected as the eleventh speaker in the Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health. Her lecture is titled "Gender Differences in Environmental Health Threats," will take place at Emory's Center for Ethics, Room 102 on Thursday, December 3,
Linda McCauley,
Dean McCauley will discuss what cutting-edge research at Emory and elsewhere is telling us about how men and women may react differently to chemicals in their environment. Drawing on both her own research and that of others, she'll present intriguing case studies highlighting female resistances as well as susceptibilities to environmental health threats.
2008 Dr. Gina Wingood
Gina WingoodDr. Gina Wingood was selected as the tenth speaker in the Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health. Her lecture titled "What's New in HIV Prevention Education for Women: Local and National Approaches" took place at Emory's Miller-Ward Alumni House on Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 7:30 p.m.
Wingood has been lead or co-investigator on numerous studies focused on the prevention of HIV/AIDS in young women both in the United States and abroad. Wingood has said that she targets women for her studies because of their higher exposure to "gendered, cultural, [and] social variables that increase the risk." Getting at the root of the problem, she has said, often involves seeing "the construction of their lives."
The current five-year study Wingood leads, Social Health of African-American and White Women's Lives (SHAWL), looks at 1,000 black women and 500 white women to see how personal or cognitive factors, attitudes, and actions ultimately affect their risk for HIV/AIDS. Wingood and her research team are especially interested in how gender and racial discrimination, economic hardship, and community and personal violence may affect women's choices regarding sexual behavior.
Wingood holds an ScD from the School of Public Health at Harvard University and an MPH from the University of California-Berkeley.
2007 Dr. Kathy Parker
Kathy ParkerDr. Kathy Parker, co-director of the Emory Healthcare Program in Sleep, was selected as the ninth speaker in the Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lecture on Women and Health. Her talk was presented on Tuesday, October 30, 2007, at 7:30 p.m. in Emory’s Miller-Ward Alumni House.
An expert in sleep disturbances, Parker is also the Edith F. Honeycutt Professor in Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and holds a second appointment in Neurology at the Emory University School of Medicine.
Her research at Emory has made significant contributions toward achieving an increased understanding of the important interactions among sleep, health, and illness, both in normal and clinical populations. Parker is currently extending her research to include the study of sleep in cancer patients with pain. She is the director of the School of Nursing’s Exploratory Nursing Research Center as well as the Center for Research on Symptoms, Symptom Interactions, and Health Outcomes, which provides research and education opportunities for faculty and students.
She is one of five nurses in the country certified in clinical sleep disorders by the American Board of Sleep Medicine and was recently elected a Fellow of the America Academy of Sleep Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing--the highest nursing honor.
Parker previously worked at Atlanta’s Veteran Affairs Medical Center as a nurse practitioner. She was primarily working with patients with kidney disorder, during which time she recognized that the majority of them reported sleep disturbances as a result of their renal disease. Parker quickly began to make the connection between sleep disturbances and the recovery of her patients.
Now with more than twenty years of practice, Parker has dedicated her research to the study of sleep/wake-cycle disturbances in patients with chronic illness and to the development and testing of population-specific interventions. She discussed how sleep is a universal need and how her research has proved it essential for optimal health and well-being.
2006 Dr. Harriet Robinson
Dr. Harriet Robinson, chief of the Division of Microbiology and Immunology in Yerkes Primate Research Center of Emory University, has been selected as the eighth speaker in the Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lectureship on Women in the Health Professions. Her talk, "Working Towards an HIV/AIDS Vaccine: Where are we now and where do we want to be?" was presented on Tuesday, October 24, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. in Emory’s Miller-Ward Alumni House.
A pioneer in vaccine development, Dr. Robinson is also the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in Emory’s medical school and a faculty member in the Emory Vaccine Center housed at Yerkes.
She is internationally known for her discovery that purified DNA can be used as a safe, effective vaccine. Most recently, she has been the force behind the development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine, currently in human clinical trials. The vaccine, initially developed and tested at Yerkes and licensed to GeoVax, is considered a leading candidate for containing HIV infections and preventing progression to AIDS.
Dr. Robinson received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Emory in 1997, she was a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Robinson was a National Science Foundation Fellow and has served on committees of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the World Health Organization. She currently serves on the Nominating Committee of the American Society of Microbiology, the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Microbiology, as a consultant of the Gates Foundation, and is chief of the GeoVax Scientific Advisory Board.
2005 Dr. Marilynne McKay
Professor Emerita of Dermatology in the School of Medicine presented the seventh annual Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lectureship on Women in the Health Professions on Tuesday, November 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum Reception Hall. In her lecture, “The Vulva Monologue,” she reflected on her own experiences in teaching and clinical medicine. Dr. McKay explored the evolution of a professional career from student to mentor and back again. When considering a direction for our lives-- a decision that
Her many publications include articles and book chapters on vulvar disorders for generalists as well as specialists in dermatology, gynecology, and psychiatry. She was elected President of the International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease and co-edited a classic textbook, Obstetric and Gynecologic Dermatology.
Acclaimed as an informative and entertaining lecturer for audiences around the world, Dr. McKay organized the first forum on teaching techniques at the American Academy of Dermatology and mentored junior faculty both at Emory and for the Women’s Dermatologic Society. At Emory, she was Chief of Dermatology at Grady Memorial Hospital and later the Executive Director of Continuing Medical Education. She also served on the School of Medicine and University committees on the status of women at Emory.
A graduate of the University of New Mexico with an MS from Oklahoma State University, she worked as a medical research technologist before deciding at the age of thirty to go to medical school. After completing her dermatology residency at the University of Miami, Dr. McKay came to Emory as an assistant professor in 1980. Six years ago, she retired and returned to her
2004 Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding
The Sixth Annual Mary Lynn Morgan Lectureship on Women in the Health Professions titled: "At-Home Health Care -- Thank You, Dr. Mom!" was delivered by Dr. Julie Gerberding on Wednesday, October 6, 2004, at 7:30 pm in the Cannon Chapel of Emory University. A reception followed.
Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H., has been the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) since July 2002.
In addition to her duties at CDC and ATSDR, Dr. Gerberding is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at Emory University and an Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF).
After receiving a degree in chemistry and biology as well as her M.D. at Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Gerberding completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at UCSF, where she served as Chief Medical Resident before completing her fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology and Infectious Diseases. She then earned her M.P.H. degree at the University of California, Berkeley in 1990.
Dr. Gerberding was director of the Prevention Epicenter, a multidisciplinary research, training, and clinical service program that focused on preventing infections in patients and their healthcare providers. In 1998 she joined the CDC as Director of the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, NCID. Prior to her current positions at CDC and ATSDR, she was Acting Deputy Director at National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), where she played a major role in leading CDC’s response to the anthrax bioterrorism events of 2001.
Dr. Gerberding has authored or co-authored more than 140 peer-reviewed publications and contributed to numerous guidelines and policies relevant to HIV prevention, post-exposure prophylaxis, management of infected healthcare personnel, and healthcare-associated infection prevention. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Annals of Internal Medicine and is Associate Editor of the American Journal of Medicine in addition to peer-reviewing numerous other journals.
2003 Dr. Marla E. Salmon
The Fifth Annual Mary Lynn Morgan Lectureship on Women in the Health Professions titled "The Crisis in Caring: Nursing and the Failing Demographic Equation" was delivered by Dr. Marla E. Salmon on Wednesday, October 8, 2003, at 7:30 p.m. in the Michael C. Carlos Museum reception hall of Emory University. A reception followed.
Marla Salmon, ScD, RN, FAAN, the dean of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing of Emory University, is a professor of both nursing and public health at Emory and is also founding director of the Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing in the School of Nursing. These leadership roles build on her career dedicated to improving the health of people through nursing and public health. Dr. Salmon's areas of teaching, research, and publication include health policy and administration, public health nursing and health workforce development. A recipient of the President's Meritorious Executive Award and the American Nurses' Association Community Health Nurse of the Year award among others, Dr. Salmon has also been recognized by the National Black Nurses' Foundation for her role in enhancing the ethnic and racial diversity of the nation's nursing workforce.
Always involved both nationally and internationally, Dr. Salmon has served with groups such as the World Health Organization, for which she is the immediate past-chair of its Advisory Group on Nursing and Midwifery, and the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform. She has been a leader in the development of important national initiatives aimed at interdisciplinary workforce planning, boosting diversity in nursing and meeting the needs of underserved populations.
Dr. Salmon received her doctoral degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health holds degrees in nursing and political science from the University of Portland and is the recipient of two honorary degrees. Dr. Salmon has also been a Fellow in the W. K. Kellogg National Fellowship Program and the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
2002 Dr. Claire Sterk
The Fourth Annual Mary Lynn Morgan Lectureship on Women in the Health Professions titled "Empowering Women: The Health Challenges That Lie Ahead" was delivered by Dr. Claire Sterk, noted researcher and professor at the Rollins School of Public Health on Tuesday, October 8, 2002, 7:30 pm, Michael C. Carlos Museum.
The first person to identify the risk of HIV infection due to unprotected sex among crack cocaine users, Dr. Claire E. Sterk is also an accomplished author. Her two books are Fast Lives: Women Who Use Crack Cocaine and Tricking and Tripping: Prostitution in the Era of AIDS. These books, which both feature ethnographic studies and have been translated into several languages, have solidified her standing as a leading national and international figure in the field of public health and anthropology. She is considered one of the ten most highly regarded applied anthropologists working on health issues and is among the very best social scientists studying the AIDS epidemic.
Dr. Sterk received her first doctoral degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Utrecht in 1983. She came to New York City in 1986, began her work on AIDS and the transmission of HIV, received her second doctoral degree in Sociology in 1990 through a joint program offered by Erasmus University (Rotterdam) and the Graduate School of City University of New York.
She was invited to the Centers for Disease Control as a visiting scientist and was recruited by Emory as a professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, in the Grace Crum Rollins School of Public Health, in 1995.
Dr. Sterk was promoted to the rank of Full Professor in September 2000. She leads the dynamic department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, which employs over 220 people on its projects and is among 5 to 10 departments in any unity of Emory University in the number of funded programs of research. She served as President of the University Senate in 1999-2000.
In 2002, Dr. Sterk was named Charles Howard Candler Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education.
2001 Dr. Kathleen Toomey
Kathleen E. Toomey, MD, MPH, well known for her work in the prevention of STDs and HIV/AIDS, as well as women’s health and reproductive health policy, delivered the third lecture in the Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lectureship on Women in the Health Professions series. Her talk, titled "The Evolution of Women's Health: What is it Anyway," took place Wednesday, October 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Miller-Ward Alumni House.
As Director of the Division of Public Health, Georgia Department of Human Resources, Dr. Toomey is responsible not only for providing public health leadership throughout the state but for setting the state’s public health policies. She heads the agency that is responsible for: maternal and child health, environmental health and injury prevention, outbreak investigations and infectious disease prevention including sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis; the Women, Infant, and Children’s (WIC) Nutrition Program, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), vital records, epidemiology and health statistics, chronic disease prevention and health promotion, and the Public Health Laboratory.
In addition to her duties as Georgia’s Director of Public Health, Dr. Toomey serves as an adjunct associate professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and International Health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, clinical associate professor of medicine at Emory School of Medicine, and clinical associate professor at Morehouse University School of Medicine.
After receiving a degree in Biology from Smith College and studying as a Fulbright Scholar in Peru, Dr. Toomey received both her MD and MPH degrees from Harvard University.
A Board Certified Family Practitioner, Dr. Toomey has received numerous honors and awards including, the CDC Award for Contributions to the Advancement of Women and the Public Health Service Plaque for Outstanding Leadership. She has served on the boards of many professional and national organizations including the Alan Guttmacher Institute and is currently a member of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Board of the Institute of Medicine.
2000 Dr. Luella Klein
Dr. Luella Klein delivered the second annual lecture in the Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lectureship on Women in the Health Professions series. Her talk, titled " Birth Control: Are Women on the Right Track?" took place on October 11, 2000. Dr. Klein is the Charles Howard Candler Professor in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a subspecialist in Maternal-Fetal Medicine and has a long time interest in women's health care issues and reproductive health policy.
She received her BA (summa cum laude) and MD degrees at the University of Iowa and her Obstetric and Gynecological specialty training at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, followed by a Fulbright Fellowship in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of London in England.
Dr. Klein has been in private practice and was the Assistant Director of Clinical Research at Bristol Laboratories. She was Chairman of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Emory University School of Medicine from 1986 to 1993, the first and only woman to be named the chair in the Emory School of Medicine. She is the Director of the Maternal and Infant Care Project, the Comprehensive Care Program for high-risk obstetric patients at Grady Memorial Hospital. She is Vice President of Women's Health of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Luella Klein has received awards from the Georgia Perinatal Association, the Georgia Obstetrical, and Gynecological Society, an Atlanta Women History Maker Award, the American Medical Women's Association Elizabeth Blackwell Award, the Emory Medal, the Daggett Harvey Award of the Chicago Maternity Center and Northwestern University, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Distinguished Service Award, the Georgia Commission on Women's Award, Georgia Women Pioneers in Health Care 1998 and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Jacobs Institute 1998.
Dr. Klein has been President of the Atlanta Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, the Georgia Obstetrical and Gynecological Society and the Society of Maternal and Infant Care Project Directors, and been President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She is currently Director of Women's Health Issues for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
She is a member of the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Klein is Past President, former Vice President of Atlanta's Planned Parenthood, member and former Chair of the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) Board of Directors and past member of the National Academy Sciences Committee for the Study of Prevention of Low Weight Births, a member of the Southern Governor's Task Force on Infant Mortality and the National Institutes of Health Content of Prenatal Care Committee. She is a member and Past Chair of the Maternal and Infant Health Committee of the Medical Association of Georgia, former member of the Board of Trustees of the Berlex Foundation, a member of the Board of Family Health International, member and Past Chair of the Governing Council and Policy Committee of the Maternal and Infant Health Section of the American Hospital Association and Past Member of the ABOG and its Maternal Fetal Medicine Division. Dr. Klein is also a past member of the Medical Education Foundation and Executive Committee of the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
1999 Dr. Nanette Kass Wenger
Dr. Nanette Kass Wenger, chief of cardiology at Grady Memorial Hospital, delivered the inaugural lecture for the Mary Lynn Morgan Annual Lectureship on Women in the Health Professions. She spoke on "Women's Health: Not Solely a Medical Issue" on October 7, 1999, in Emory's Michael C. Carlos Museum Reception Hall. She is also director of the Cardiac Clinics, a professor of medicine in Emory School of Medicine's Division of Cardiology, and a consultant to the Emory Heart Center. Dr. Wenger is credited with dispelling the myth of heart disease as solely a man's illness.
Dr. Wenger—who was named the American Heart Association Physician of the Year in 1998—was among the first physician-scientists to speak out about the great underrepresentation of women subjects in medical research. She was the first president of the Georgia affiliate of the American Heart Association. Elected as a master of the American College of Physicians, her record of professional service and honor is unmatched. Currently, Dr. Wenger heads the Emory component of the Heart and Estrogen-Progestin Replacement Study (HERS), a national study evaluating whether hormone-replacement therapy can prevent recurrent coronary episodes in women with heart disease after menopause. She is also one of the two co-principal investigators leading the EVISTA trial, an international study testing-in some 10, 000 women, in twenty-five countries-the role of the osteoporosis drug Raloxifene in preventing coronary death and heart attack in postmenopausal women.
A graduate of Hunter College (summa cum laude) and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Wenger has authored and coauthored more than 900 scientific and review articles and book chapters. She is a recipient of the President's Women in Science Award of the American Medical Women's Association.
She has fought passionately for equal research among women and has achieved results. Since beginning her crusade, Congress has created the Office of Research in Women's Health as part of the National Institutes of Health and has passed legislation requiring that all government-funded studies of health problems common to both men and women study each gender equally.