I was very pleased to read recently that Vanessa Northington Gamble, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed as University Professor of Medical Humanities at George Washington University, effective earlier this month. As a physician, historian, and activist, Dr. Gamble is an expert in the fields of medical history and humanities, bioethics and health care disparities, and is the first woman to hold this prestigious faculty position.
Early in my academic career I spent hours in the stacks of the local university’s library reading anything I could get my hands on that dealt with the history of race and ethnicity in medicine and public health in this country. Scholars such as Dr. Gamble fueled my passion, with writings and publications that vociferously addressed the state of health care as I observed it within my community, and presented to me a priceless body of knowledge from which I have drawn from over and over again.
Dr. Gamble directed the National Center for Bioethics and Research in Health Care at Tuskegee University and has served as head of the Division of Community and Minority Programs at the Association of American Medical Colleges. She is also an associate professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Many congratulations to her and to the faculty that will benefit tremendously from her wisdom.
