Vanessa Northington Gamble, MD, PhD is University Professor of Medical Humanities and Professor of Health Policy and American Studies at the George Washington University.  She is the first woman and African American to hold this prestigious, endowed faculty position. She is also Professor of Health Policy in the Milken Institute School of Public Health and Professor of American Studies in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.  Dr. Gamble is Adjunct Professor of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Throughout her career she has worked to promote equity and justice in medicine and public health.  A physician, scholar, and activist, Dr. Gamble is an internationally recognized expert on the history of American medicine, racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care, public health ethics, and bioethics.  She is the author of several widely acclaimed publications on the history of race and racism in American medicine and bioethics. Public service has been a hallmark of her career.  She has serviced on many boards and chaired the committee that took the lead role in the successful campaign to obtain an apology in 1997 from President Clinton for the United States Public Health Syphilis Study at Tuskegee.   She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) and a Fellow of the Hastings Center. A proud native of West Philadelphia, Dr. Gamble received her B.A. from Hampshire College and her MD and PhD in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Presentation Title: A Pioneer of Social Justice in Medicine: The Activist Life of Dr. Virginia M. Alexander (1899-1949)

 

This presentation will analyze the life of Dr. Virginia M. Alexander, an African American physician-activist, to provide an historical example of what it has meant to lead a professional and personal life at the intersection of medicine and social justice. It will also discuss how her career serves as a model for contemporary activists.