Suzanne Harrison, professor and director of education in the department of family medicine and rural health in the College of Medicine at Florida State University, has been elected president of the American Medical Women’s Association. The association, founded in 1915, has 6,000 dues-paying members. It publishes the Journal of Women’s Health.
“The mission is to advance women in medicine and to improve patient outcomes in women’s health,” said Dr. Harrison. “But that can mean lots of things to lots of different people. We’ve got one group who are staunch advocates of reproductive rights. Then you’ve got other people who are more interested in women’s career advancement. And then you’ve got this other faction – to which I belong more significantly – and that’s humanism in medicine and making sure that we’re all treating each other with respect.”
Dr. Harrison joined the faculty at Florida State in 2005. She is a graduate of the University of Idaho, where she majored in zoology. Dr. Harrison earned her medical degree at the University of Washington.