Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: I was a recently hired member of the newly established Division of Pediatric Nephrology and an Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School when Mel Avery became the Chief of the Department of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief at Children's in 1974.There was excitement, as Dr. Avery's appointment was a "first" unfolding right in front of those of us who, as young women physicians, hoped to have careers in academic pediatrics, and anticipatory talk filled the corridors of Children's.On her arrival, Mel Avery was an automatic role model for the women among the faculty.She had made a major scientific discovery that a lack of surfactant caused respiratory distress syndrome in neonates, and she was still young (in her mid-forties), with abundance of energy.I was delighted and proud to have a woman, and one so accomplished, become the Physician-in-Chief at Children's.Her hiring and her achievements allowed us to see that a woman could have a prominent role in academic medicine.The sense I had as a young faculty member was that Dr. Avery expected hard work and dedication, which was a self-selected trait among those women in the Department of Pediatrics at Children's.So, the fit for us was a good one.It was a boost in the arm to see that Dr. Avery supported women in medicine, and she was instrumental in asking Dr. Mary Ellen Wohl, who had come to Children's in 1969, to become the chief of the Division of Pediatric Respiratory Diseases, and in the ensuing years Dr. Wohl became a pioneer in her own right.And in 1975,
Source: Frontiers in Pediatrics
Author: Julie R. Ingelfinger
Institutions: Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital
Language: English
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W1975189033