Forty Women Academics Elected to the National Academy of Medicine

The National Academy of Medicine has announced the election of 90 regular members and 10 international members. Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Of the new members from the United States with ties to the academic world, it appears that 40 are women.

Paola Arlotta, is the Golub Family Professor in the department of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University. She is being recognized for pioneering work on the development and application of powerful stem cell-based models of the human brain, brain organoids, and for her foundational contributions to understanding processes of human brain formation and human neurological disease.

Professor Arlotta holds a master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Trieste in Italy. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Portsmouth in England.

Tracy L. Bale is the Anschutz Foundation Endowed Chair in Women’s Integrated Mental and Physical Health; professor in the department of psychiatry, and director of InterGenerational Stress and Health at the University of Colorado, Aurora. Her research focuses on the identification of novel biological mechanisms by which stress across the lifespan increases neuropsychiatric disease risk, pioneering work translating cellular processes into biomarkers in human disease, including the biological effects at the germ cell level involved in offspring neurodevelopment, and for her transformative engagement and inclusion of vulnerable populations.

Dr. Bale is a graduate of Washington State University, where she majored in genetics and molecular biology. She holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of Washington.

Nina Bhardwaj holds the Waldman Chair in Cancer Research and is a professor of medicine and urology and the director of immunotherapy for the Vaccine and Cell Therapy Laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Dr. Bhardwaj is being honored for the discovery and function of human dendritic cell subsets, identifying cross-presenting pathways of antigen presentation impacting cancer and viral immunity, and establishing their potent adjuvant activity in humans, pivotal discoveries which underlie the first approval of a cell-based vaccine in cancer.

Dr. Bhardwaj earned a medical doctorate and at Ph.D. at New York University.

Maria Elena Bottazzi is a professor in the  departments of pediatrics and of molecular virology and microbiology and senior associate dean and division chief for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Bottazzi is a tropical and emerging disease microbiologist, vaccinologist, global health advocate, and co-creator of a patent-free, open source COVID-19 vaccine technology. She pioneers and leads the advancement of a robust infectious disease vaccine portfolio tackling diseases that affect disproportionally the world’s poorest populations.

Professor Bottazzi is a graduate of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, where she majored in microbiology. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida.

Kathryn H. Bowles is a professor and holds the van Ameringen Chair in Nursing Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She is also vice president and director of the Center for Home Care Policy and Research for VNS Health in Philadelphia. She is responsible for accelerating the implementation of a learning health system via rigorous evidence in transitional care and advances in health information technologies. Dr. Bowles and her team have developed and commercialized a decision support tool for discharge planning to identify patients in need of post-acute care services. Her work with sepsis survivors resulted in a new ICD-10 code for sepsis aftercare.

Dr. Bowles holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She earned a master’s degree in nursing from Villanova University in Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jennifer D. Carlson is a professor at the Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, and founding director of the Center for the Study of Guns in Society at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on understanding how guns shape American lives, including those who survive gun violence, police who enforce the country’s complex gun laws, gun retailers on the front lines of gun purchasing, and the people who own and carry guns.

Professor Carlson is a graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she majored in mathematics and sociology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Lisa M. Coussens is a professor and and chair of the department of cell, developmental, and cancer biology, and deputy director for basic and translational research at the Knight Cancer Institute of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. She has produced paradigm-shifting mechanistic studies on inflammation and cancer that identified B cell and myeloid cell significance in fostering solid tumor progression and hindering therapeutic responses. Dr. Coussens subsequently conducted proof-of-concept clinical studies, successfully demonstrating that targeting B cell or myeloid-based molecular pathways yield systemic and tumor immune reprogramming that fosters anti-tumor immunity.

Dr. Coussens is a graduate of San Francisco State University and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California.

Leemore Dafny is the Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; and professor of public policy at the  Harvard Kennedy School. She has conducted path-breaking work in illuminating where health care markets succeed and fail, including powerful insights regarding market consolidation, strategic decisions of market participants, and policy solutions to market failures. Her research on competition in health care appears in leading journals, and she has testified and provided advice to government agencies and congressional committees at the highest levels.

Professor Dafny graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company prior to earning her Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Teresa A. Davis is a professor in the department of pediatrics of the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She is an expert on the nutritional regulation of growth, having identified fundamental mechanisms by which nutrients regulate muscle protein synthesis and growth, with direct implications for improving lean growth and health of infants. She is a global leader on protein and amino acid requirements.

Dr. Davis holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all from the University of Tennessee.

Patricia C. Dykes is the research program director for the Center for Patient Safety, Research, and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is an internationally recognized nurse scientist and biomedical informatician who has developed, integrated into practice, and broadly disseminated innovative, cost-effective health information technology tools that engage patients and families in fall prevention, markedly reducing patient falls — the leading cause of injury-related death for those 65 and older.

Professor Dykes received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Fairfield University in Connecticut. She holds a master’s degrees in nursing from New York University and a doctorate in nursing informatics from Columbia University.

Alicia Fernandez is a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She is being honored for seminal health services research elucidating the impact of language and literacy barriers on patient outcomes and experience of care that highlights the challenges facing millions with limited English proficiency, and for effectively championing workforce diversity and health equity through high-impact research and program development.

Dr. Fernandez is a graduate of Yale University, where she majored in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. She earned her medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Silvia C. Formenti is a professor of radiation oncology and medicine and chair of the department of radiation oncology at Weil Cornell Medicine in New York City. She is responsible for a paradigm shift in our understanding of focal radiotherapy by demonstrating that it can convert the tumor into an “in situ,” individualized vaccine, conferring systemic immunity. Her work has opened a new field in radiation biology.

Dr. Formenti earned her medical doctorate at the University of Milan in Italy.

Monika Kumari Goyal is a professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She holds an endowed chair for Women in Science and Health and is co-director of the Center for Translational Research at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. She is a national leader in research in pediatric firearm injury prevention. Her research has shed a spotlight on the burden of firearm violence on child health. She is also a leading pediatric equity scientist, developing interventions that have led to mitigation of health care disparities.

Dr. Goyal is a graduate of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and earned her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania.

Marcia Carmen Haigis is a professor in the department of cell biology at Harvard Medical School. She is being recognized for leadership and pioneering studies in cellular metabolism, elucidating how metabolites contribute to normal physiology, aging, cancer, and anti-tumor immune control. Her discoveries focused on how diet and age alter metabolite interactions, leading to disease.

Professor Haigis obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 2002.

Sally Lynn Hodder is the associate vice president of clinical and translational research and a professor of medicine at the School of Medicine at West Virginia University Health Sciences in Morgantown. She is an infectious diseases physician and researcher. Dr. Hodder is a leader in the design and conduct of clinical trials, particularly among underserved rural and underrepresented populations. She is an expert in HIV treatment and prevention, rural health, addiction research, mentorship of young investigators, and engagement of community in research.

Dr. Hodder graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She earned a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Shawna Veleura Hudson is vice chancellor for dissemination and implementation science for Rutgers Health, and professor of family medicine and community health at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She has conducted seminal work to address vital U.S. health system implementation challenges for vulnerable populations. Her research shapes policy and practice to integrate care of cancer and other chronic illnesses for patients and families in the context of their communities during the critical transitions between specialty and primary care, and long-term cancer survivorship.

Dr. Hudson holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in sociology, all from Rutgers University.

Nola M. Hylton is a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a leader in the development of breast MRI technology, the modern quantitative MRI techniques for breast cancer diagnosis, and therapy guidance through development of MRI industrywide NIST-supported standards. She has served as the leader of multiple national network multicenter NCI trials; and development of globally commercialized (Hologic) software, improving the health of millions of women globally.

Dr. Hylton received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University.

Reshma Jagsi is the Lawrence W. Davis Professor and chair of the department of radiation oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. She has conducted empirical research that has identified targetable drivers of disparities in cancer outcomes and within the medical profession, particularly for women. Her work to develop and evaluate innovative interventions to promote equity has established new areas of investigation in oncology and prompted policy changes by institutions, funders, and professional societies.

Professor Jagsi completed undergraduate and medical training at Harvard University. She holds a doctorate in social policy from the University of Oxford in England, where she was a Marshall Scholar.

Yishi Jin is a professor in the department of neurobiology for the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. She has made groundbreaking discoveries on phylogenetically conserved mechanisms that drive synapse formation and that underlie central nervous system regeneration, providing fundamental knowledge and molecular targets which inform therapeutic strategies for ameliorating the effects of neuronal injury and degeneration.

Dr. Jin received her bachelor’s degree from Peking University in China, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Christine Laine is the editor-in-chief of the journal, Annals of Internal Medicine and a professor of medicine at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. As editor, she has expanded the influence of the Annals of Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians by addressing issues such as firearms and gun violence, reproducible research, misinformation, reproductive health, equitable health care, and scientific misconduct.

Professor Laine is a graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. She holds a medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a master of public health degree from Harvard University.

Beatriz Luna is the Staunton Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics and professor of psychology, bioengineering, and radiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She has established a model of normative adolescent neurocognitive development, identifying neural mechanisms of plasticity supporting the specialization into adulthood of cognitive and motivational systems. She has drafted AMA briefs for the U.S. Supreme Court decisions on juvenile sentencing and has led the Flux Society for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.

Dr. Luna holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Trudy F.C. Mackay is the director of the Center for Human Genetics and holds the Self Family Endowed Chair of Human Genetics at Clemson University in South Carolina. She is recognized as one of the world’s leading geneticists for pioneering studies on the genetic architecture of complex traits and the discovery of fundamental principles of quantitative genetics with broad applications for medicine.

Professor Mackay holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in genetics Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She earned a Ph.D. in genetics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Nicole Maestas is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. She has made contributions to our understanding of the economics of employment, work capacity, and income support for people who are disabled or elderly. Dr. Maestas has provided national leadership in building the evidence base for disability policymaking; and for contributions to the economics of health insurance for the elderly and people with disabilities.

Dr. Maestasis is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she majored in English and Spanish. She holds a master of public policy degree and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Erica Elizabeth Marsh is the S. Jan Behrman Collegiate Professor of Reproductive Medicine and vice chair and division chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Marsh has conducted research on uterine leiomyomas and has worked to eliminate disparities in reproductive health. Her commitment to building research capacity in women’s health, both nationally and globally, and her cultivation of the next generation of leaders in reproductive health will have a lasting impact.

Dr. Marsh is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. She also earned a master’s degree in clinical investigation from Northwestern University in Illinois.

Dayna Bowen Matthew is the dean and the Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. She is receiving recognition for advancing the understanding of how policies and legal systems have produced health inequities. Her work has resulted in actionable federal policy changes in the United States. She is the author of the bestselling book Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care (New York University Press, 2015) and Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America (New York University Press, 2022).

Dr. Matthew is a graduate of Harvard University. She earned a juris doctorate at the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in health and behavioral sciences from the University of Colorado Denver.

Margaret M. McCarthy is the director of the University of Maryland – Medicine Institute for Neuroscience Discovery and holds the James and Carolyn Frenkil Dean’s Endowed Professorship in the department of pharmacology, physiology, and drug development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. She was the first to discover a critical role of the immune system in determining sex differences and the impact of infection and inflammation on neuroanatomical and behavioral outcomes, which provided mechanistic insights into the higher prevalence of autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia in boys and men.

Professor McCarthy holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Missouri. She earned a Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Genevieve B. Melton-Meaux is the senior associate dean of health informatics and data science, director of the Center for Learning Health System Sciences, and professor of surgery and health informatics at the University of Minnesota. Her research is focused on integrating atificial intelligence with health care, bridging surgery and informatics, and fueling learning health systems. Dr. Melton-Meaux explores complex health dynamics, from optimizing clinical note usage in electronic health records to large-scale detection of social/behavioral health determinants with clinical data. Her work has significantly advanced biomedical informatics, clinical practice, and policy.

Dr. Melton-Meaux is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where she majored in mathematics, electrical engineering, and computer science. She holds a master’s degree in biomedical informatics from Columbia University, a Ph.D. in health informatics from the University of Minnesota, and a medical doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Funda Meric-Bernstam is a professor and chair of the department of investigational cancer therapeutics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. She is being honored for leading practice-changing clinical oncology trials in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-targeted therapy and for bringing novel biomarker-driven combination therapies from bench to bedside. She is leading large-scale national efforts in precision oncology such as NCI ComboMATCH and investigator-initiated antibody drug conjugate-MATCH; and leads one of the most influential developmental therapeutics programs in the world.

Professor Meric-Bernstam earned her medical degree at Yale University.

Sally C. Morton is the executive vice president of Knowledge Enterprise and a professor of statistics in the College of Health Solutions and the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at Arizona State University. She is being recognized for leadership in statistics, health policy, and science in both academic and nonprofit research institutions; excellence in evidence synthesis of clinical and public health issues; and impactful methodology in patient-centered comparative effectiveness research. Her pioneering contributions to clinical practice guidelines and health care interventions have reduced morbidity and mortality.

Dr. Morton holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematical sciences, a master’s degree in operations research and a Ph.D. in statistics, all from Stanford University. She also earned a master’s degree in statistics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Jennifer B. Nuzzo is the director of thr Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island. She co-created the Global Health Security Index and conducted research to measure and improve national preparedness for infectious disease threats. She co-established a global COVID-19 testing data tracker and created a health systems resilience checklist for biological emergencies.

Dr. Nuzzo is a graduate of Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she majored in environmental science. She holds a master’s degree in environmental health from Harvard university and a doctorate in public health from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Priscilla Eyikojoka Pemu is a professor of medicine at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. She has conducted research on clinical trial diversity, centering on the importance of regaining trust, fostering transparent collaboration, and ensuring the equitable participation of diverse populations in medical research. She has worked with the Grady Health system, a large public hospital, primary care practices, and historically Black churches and institutions.

Dr. Pemu earned her medical degree at the University of Benin.

Uma M. Reddy is a professor and vice chair of research in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and a professor of population and family health in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City. She has conducted paradigm-shifting research that has fundamentally advanced the understanding of stillbirth, neonatal morbidity and mortality, and labor management and their impact on maternal morbidity through large multicenter cohorts and trials, driving new standards in national obstetric practice and improved outcomes for pregnant people and their children.

Professor Reddy earned a bachelor’s degree and a medical doctorate at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She holds a master of public health degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Christine E. Schmidt holds the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Endowed Chair in the department of biomedical rngineering at the University of Florida. She is being honored for outstanding leadership, pioneering research, and clinical translation in neural tissue engineering and wound healing. Before joining the faculty at the University of FLorida in 2013, she taught at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Schmidt is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in chemical engineering. She earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois.

Deborah Schrag is chair of the department of medicine at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She is being honored for her pioneering efforts to develop, validate, and disseminate methods for ascertaining patient-reported outcomes that have advanced the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of cancer research. She has been a leader in bridging the efficacy-effectiveness gap by developing strategies to improve equitable delivery of cancer care and for leading practice changing studies in colorectal cancer.

Dr. Schrag holds a master of public health degree from Harvard University and a medical doctorate from Columbia University.

Eugenia South is the Ralph Muller Presidential Associate Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine and associate vice president of health justice for the University of Pennsylvania Health System. She also serves as the faculty director for the university’s Center for Health Justice. She is among the country’s foremost leaders in developing and testing interventions to dismantle structural racism and prevent firearm injury in Black neighborhoods. She has made substantive, field-changing scientific and real-world contributions to advancing health via the lens of racial, environmental, and economic justice.

Dr. South is a graduate of Harvard University. She earned her medical degree at Washington University in St. Louis and holds a master of public health degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Konstantina M. Stankovic is the Bertarelli Foundation Professor and chair of the department of otolaryngology – head and neck surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California. She is an expert in the causes and treatments of hearing loss, which affects 1.5 billion people worldwide. She has initiated and led successful national and international collaborations to develop and deploy novel molecular diagnostics and therapeutics for hearing loss while educating tomorrow’s leaders in surgery and science.

Professor Stankovic holds bacgelor’s degrees in physics and biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned a medical doctorate and a Ph.D. from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Alexis A. Thompson is chief of the Division of Hematology and holds the Elias Schwartz MD Endowed Chair in Hematology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is also a professor of pediatrics for the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Her research focuses on sickle cell disease (SCD) and has created the first national SCD learning community, the largest SCD data repository, and collaborations to improve care for children with SCD in sub-Saharan Africa. She is also being recognized for her role in recent FDA approval of gene therapy and other novel SCD therapeutics.

Dr. Thompson earned her medical degree at Tulane University in New Orleans. She holds a master of public health degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Fan Wang is a professor of brain and cognitive sciences and an investigator for the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on brain circuits important for anesthesia and analgesia, and circuits for generating rhythmic and coordinated orofacial movements. Her research provided foundational knowledge for developing new therapies to treat chronic pain and movement disorders.

Before coming to MIT in January 2021, Dr. Wang obtained her Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Donna L. Washington is the director of Health Equity-QUERI National Partnered Evaluation Center at the Veterans Health Administration. She is also a professor of medicine for the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles. She is being honored for groundbreaking research that has enhanced the understanding of the health and health care needs of U.S. veterans and to ensure equitable access to the highest quality health care and outcomes for this diverse population. Her work informs health policy and strategic-planning initiatives to eliminate health disparities by sex, race, and ethnicity.

Dr. Washington is a graduate of Harvard University. She earned a master of public health degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a medical degree from the Boston University School of Medicine.

Hao Wu is a senior investigator for the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and is the Asa and Patricia Springer Professor in department of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. She has discovered supramolecular complexes (signalosomes) as central organizing structures that mediate signal transduction in innate immunity. Her studies led to a paradigm shift in signal transduction and new therapeutic strategies for inflammation and cancer where small molecules are developed to keep the signaling proteins in a monomeric, inactive state.

A native of China, Dr. Wu completed a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.