National Legends Meet Local Legends in Women Physicians Exhibition

National Legends Meet Local Legends in Women Physicians Exhibition

By University Communications
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Welcoming panel of "Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians."
Welcoming panel of "Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians."
Arizona's "Local Legends"
Arizona's "Local Legends"

Several women physicians from the Arizona Health Sciences Center are being recognized in conjunction with a National Library of Medicine traveling exhibition that highlights the achievements of women physicians.

A reception for the women will be held tonight in the Arizona Health Sciences Library, immediately followed by a presentation of the play "A Lady Alone: Elizabeth Blackwell, First American Woman Doctor." The play will begin at 7 p.m. in the DuVal Auditorium at University Medical Center.

The women are being honored as part of an interactive multimedia exhibition that is making stops at 61 libraries across the United States. The exhibition, "Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians," is on display at the Arizona Health Sciences Library, through March 27. The women were nominated as "Local Legends" by members of Arizona's congressional delegation.

Arizona's 11 Local Legends are:

  • Tamsen Bassford, MD, head of the department of family and community medicine.
  • Leslie Boyer, MD, medical director of the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, associate professor of clinical pediatrics and research lecturer in pharmacology.
  • Mindy Fain, MD, co-director of the UA's Arizona Center on Aging.
  • Gillian Hamilton, PhD, MD, clinical assistant professor in family and community medicine.
  • Ana Maria Lopéz, MD, MPH, associate dean of outreach and multicultural affairs and medical director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program.
  • Joy Mockbee, MD, MPH, formerly with the department of family and community medicine.
  • Jessica Moreno, MD, assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology.
  • Myra Muramoto, MD, MPH, associate professor in the departments of family and community medicine and public health.
  • Kathryn Reed, MD, head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology.
  • Cecilia Rosales, MD, MS, associate professor of public health.
  • Eve Shapiro, MD, MPH, clinical professor of pediatrics.

The traveling exhibition includes floor-to-ceiling panels that tell the story of women physicians from the mid-19th century to the present, including their early plight for equality as physicians, and also their battle for the equality of women in health care.

The University of Arizona has helped fight the battle, said López, one of the Arizona Local Legends.

"Since 1969, the College of Medicine's Office of Outreach and Multicultural Affairs has aimed to meet the health care needs of Arizona's diverse population by recruiting, retaining and supporting students who are underrepresented in health care fields through a variety of outreach programs," she said. "It is our goal to study and develop best practice models that will meet the health care needs of Arizona's increasingly diverse population."

Other women featured in the Local Legends exhibit – which is a National Library of Medicine exhibit made possible through a partnership of Congress, the National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine, the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health and the American Medical Women's Association – include UA College of Medicine faculty and graduates, and other women physicians with ties to Arizona.

The UA College of Medicine has been at the forefront of women's medical education, health research and clinical care.

"It is certainly an honor to be selected for this. I consider myself simply a representative of the many, many talented women who have made important contributions to health care," said Bassford, who in 1993 was the first woman to be appointed a department head at the UA College of Medicine.

Women have outnumbered men in more than half of the college's classes since 1995. The Class of 2009 includes 67 women (58 men), the Class of 2010 includes 57 women (54 men), the Class of 2011 includes 82 women (52 men) and the Class of 2012 includes 92 women (66 men). In contrast, the first graduating class, in 1971, had three women and 27 men.

Women faculty at the UA College of Medicine, including The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University, currently number 332, including 241 full- and part-time salaried faculty members and 91 affiliated faculty, out of 677 full- or part-time total faculty.

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