Women Making Progress in Election to the National Academy of Medicine

The National Academy of Medicine, formerly known as the Institute for Medicine, was founded in 1970. Election to the National Academy of Medicine 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. With the 70 new members from the United States, there are now 1,947 active fellows of the National Academy of Medicine along with 146 foreign associates.

An analysis of the list of the 70 new members of the National Academy of Medicine by WIAReport finds that 28, or 40 percent, are women. Most have current affiliations with academic institutions. A year ago, women were 30 percent of the new members.

Here are brief biographies of the 28 women from the United States who were recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

(L to R) Anissa Abi-Dargham, Anita L. Allen, Cheryl Ann Marie Anderson, Bonnie L. Bassler, Karen Faith Berman, Deborah Watkins Bruner, and Alicia Laura Carriquiry

Anissa Abi-Dargham is a professor and vice chair of research in the department of psychiatry at Stony Brook University, a campus of the State University of New York System. Dr. Abi-Dargham is also professor emerita of psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City. A native of Beirut, Lebanon, Dr. Abi-Dargham received her medical degree from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

Anita L. Allen is vice provost for faculty, the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law, and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Professor Allen is a graduate of Harvard Law School. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan. She is an expert on health law and bioethics.

Cheryl Ann Marie Anderson is an associate professor of family medicine and public health at the University of California, San Diego. She joined the faculty at the university in 2012. Dr. Anderson is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She holds a master of public health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Washington.

Bonnie L. Bassler is the Squibb Professor and chair of the department of molecular biology at Princeton University in New Jersey. Dr. Bassler received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She joined the Princeton faculty in 1994.

Karen Faith Berman is a senior investigator and chief of the section on integrative neuroimaging and the clinical brain disorders branch at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Berman earned her medical degree at St. Louis University. She completed a medical internship at Washington University in St. Louis and had residency training in psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego.

Deborah Watkins Bruner is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Nursing at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and a professor of radiation oncology at Emory University in Atlanta. She also serves as the associate director of cancer outcomes research at Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. Professor Bruner holds a doctorate in nursing research from the University of Pennsylvania.

Alicia Laura Carriquiry is a distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences and professor of statistics at Iowa State University. Professor Carriquiry is a graduate of the Universidad de la Republica in Uruguay. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from Iowa State University. Her statistical research includes work on nutrition, dietary assessment, genomics, and forensic sciences.

(L to R) Laura L. Carstensen, Andrea L. Cheville, Anne L. Coleman, Kathleen Loretta Collins, Martha A.Q. Curley, Karen M. Emmons, and Elissa Sarah Epel

Laura L. Carstensen is the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy, professor of psychology, and director of the Center on Longevity at Stanford University in California. Professor Carstensen is a graduate of the University of Rochester in New York. She holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from West Virginia University.

Andrea L. Cheville is a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Her work focuses on supportive care services for cancer patients. Dr. Cheville is a graduate of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she majored in art history. She earned her medical degree at Harvard University. She also earned a master of science in clinical epidemiology degree in biostatistics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Anne L. Coleman is the Fran and Ray Stark Professor of Ophthalmology and professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Coleman is a graduate of the Medical College of Virginia School of Medicine. She holds a Ph.D. in preventive medicine from the UCLA School of Public Health.

Kathleen Loretta Collins is a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her research has focused on viruses in animals and humans, and particularly on HIV. Dr. Collins earned a medical degree and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University.

Martha A.Q. Curley is the Ellen and Robert Kapito Professor of Nursing Science and professor of anesthesia and critical care medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Curley is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She holds a master’s degree in nursing from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Boston College.

Karen M. Emmons is a professor and dean for academic affairs at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. From 2014 to 2016, she was vice president for research and director of the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute in Oakland, California. Dr. Emmons received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Illinois, and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Stony Brook University of the State University of New York System.

Elissa Sarah Epel is a professor of psychiatry and director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Lab and the Center for Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment at the University of California, San Francisco. Professor Epel is a graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in psychology and psychobiology. She holds a Ph.D. in clinical and health psychology from Yale University.

(L to R) Carol Friedman, Maura Lianne Gillison, Alison M. Goate, Paula Therese Hammond, Maria Jasin, Melina Rae Kibbe, and Maureen Lichtveld

Carol Friedman is a professor of biomedical informatics at Columbia University in New York City. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the City University of New York, where she majored in mathematics. Professor Friedman earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer science from the Courant Institute of Mathematics at New York University.

Maura Lianne Gillison is a professor of medicine and holds the Jeg Coughlin Chair in Cancer Research at Ohio State University in Columbus. Dr. Gillison is a graduate of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She also holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Alison M. Goate is the Willard T.C. Johnson Research Professor of Neurogenetics and the director of the Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Her laboratory studies the molecular genetics of dementias and addiction . Dr. Goate is a graduate of the University of Bristol in England and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford.

Paula Therese Hammond is the David H. Koch Professor of Engineering and chair of the department of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a Ph.D. from MIT. Dr. Hammond also earned a master’s degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Maria Jasin is a member of the developmental biology program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Her research is focused on DNA repair and genomic integrity in mammalian cells and the relationship to tumor suppression. She holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Melina Rae Kibbe is the Zach D. Owens Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of surgery at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. She joined the faculty at the university last summer after teaching at Northwestern University in Illinois. Dr. Kibbe received her medical degree at the University of Chicago.

Maureen Lichtveld is a professor and chair of the department of global environmental health sciences at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. Dr. Lichtveld earned her medical degree at the University of Suriname in South America. She holds a master of public health degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene & Public Health.

(L to R) Kelsey Catherine Martin, Valerie Montgomery Rice, Bernice A. Pescosolido, Lynne Doreen Richardson, Jane E. Salmon, Cheryl Lyn Walker, and Michelle A. Williams

Kelsey Catherine Martin is the dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. She also serves as a professor of biological chemistry and as a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences. Dr. Martin is a graduate of Harvard University, where she majored in English. She earned a medical degree and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Yale University.

Valerie Montgomery Rice is president and dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. She became president in 2014 and has been teaching at the medical schools since 2011. Earlier she taught at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. A graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Dr. Montgomery Rice received her medical degree at Harvard University.

Bernice A. Pescosolido is a distinguished professor of sociology and the director of the Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research at Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Pescosolido has been on the faculty at Indiana University since 1981. She is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island. Professor Pescosolido holds two master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University.

Lynne Doreen Richardson is department vice chair and professor of emergency medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Dr. Richardson is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of technology and received her M.D. at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in The Bronx, New York.

Jane E. Salmon is a professor of medicine and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City. She also serves as the Collette Kean Research Professor at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. Dr. Salmon is a magna cum laude graduate of New York University. She earned her medical degree at Columbia University.

Cheryl Lyn Walker is the director of the Center for Precision Environmental Health and a professor of molecular and cell biology and medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Walker is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas.

Michelle A. Williams is dean of faculty at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. Dr. Williams is a graduate of Princeton University. She holds a master’s degree from Tufts University and a second master’s degree and a doctorate in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.