2008 Herbert W. Nickens Award
Vivian W. Pinn, M.D.
Office of Research on Women's Health, National Institutes of Health
Whether reaching out to ensure the responsive and respectful treatment
of patients, or reaching back to mentor young doctors, Vivian Pinn's
career is all about creating better tomorrows. As a physician, teacher,
mentor, and policy leader, Dr. Pinn has taken patient-centered care
to new levels while at the same time helping advance the careers
of women and minority doctors.
Dr. Pinn's dedication to these issues is deeply rooted in family
experiences that showed her medicine's strengths as well as its
shortcomings. As a young girl helping to care for her grandparents
and seeing how doctors made them feel better, Vivian Pinn knew medicine
was her calling. But it was the tragedy of her mother's misdiagnosis
that fueled Dr. Pinn's determination to make the health care system
more responsive, particularly to women and minorities. (Dr. Pinn's
mother, who had presented with back pain, was told she had bad posture,
not the bone cancer that ultimately took her life.)
Today, as the first full-time director of the Office of Research
on Women's Health (ORWH) within the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), Dr. Pinn has established a "legitimacy," as she calls it,
for women's health. In her 17 years as director, she has successfully
carried out ORWH's mandate to ensure that women are included as
subjects in NIH-funded clinical research studies. By bringing national
attention to the prevention and treatment of diseases affecting
women and the different way disease impacts and affects women, Dr.
Pinn has taken the field far beyond the so-called "bikini view."
Additionally, through her work as co-chair of the NIH Working Group
on Women in Biomedical Careers, Dr. Pinn has helped other women
reach their goal of becoming medical researchers.
Prior to becoming ORWH director, Dr. Pinn spent more than two decades
in academic medicine as a teacher and administrator. She began her
career at Tufts University School of Medicine, becoming associate
professor of pathology, serving as assistant dean for student affairs,
and also serving on the staff at Tufts-New England Medical Center
Hospital. She also was associate coordinator for minority student
affairs and a faculty advisor to minority students. In 1982, when
she joined the faculty of Howard University College of Medicine,
Dr. Pinn also became the nation's first African American woman to
chair a pathology department.
Dr. Pinn's far-reaching impact extends beyond the NIH campus and
includes a diverse array of leadership positions. She was appointed
to the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 Examination
Committee, twice appointed to the Maryland Governor's Commission
on Women's Health, and three times appointed a U.S. delegate to
the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
No stranger to the AAMC, Dr. Pinn served on its Executive Committee
from 1991 to 1993, was twice elected to the administrative board
of the Council of Academic Societies, and chaired the Northeast
Group on Student Affairs. She also helped launch the Minority Affairs
Section of the Group on Student Affairs, which she later chaired
for two consecutive terms.
A zoology major, Dr. Pinn earned a B.A. degree from Wellesley College
and her M.D. degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
She completed her residency training in pathology at Massachusetts
General Hospital.
Dr. Pinn's numerous contributions to medicine are reflected in
her many honors and recognitions, including her 1995 election to
the Institute of Medicine. She serves on numerous journal editorial
boards, including the Journal Oversight Committee of the Journal
of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
About the Herbert
W. Nickens Award
The Herbert W. Nickens Award honors an individual who has made
outstanding contributions to promoting justice in medical education
and health care and is named for a former vice president of the
AAMC.
Find out more about the Herbert
W. Nickens Award.
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