December 3rd 2023.
Dr. Paula Johnson has set an incredible example of inspiring and empowering women. Not only is she the first Black woman president of Wellesley College, but she is also a cardiologist who has made great strides in improving healthcare for women globally. Her professional goal is to improve the health and well-being of women and women of color, especially those who suffer the most from inequity.
Dr. Johnson is very aware of the male biases that exist in health research studies. Her journey started when she took a course taught by Ruth Hubbard, the first tenured woman in the Harvard University biology department. Dr. Johnson described the course as “transformational.” It was then that she connected the dots between male biases and health research.
This passion was further fuelled by Dr. Johnson's personal experience of her family's struggles to get support for her grandmother’s psychiatric illness. She said to Wired, “My grandmother’s psychiatric illness through a good part of my childhood was, when I look back, a motivating force.”
Dr. Johnson has had a hand in effecting change across government policies, such as birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and in 2016 and 2017 she advocated for the U.S. National Institutes of Health to create a new policy to include sex as a biological variable in all of its science. She was also involved in raising awareness of sexual harassment of women in engineering and science, which led to policy changes in 2017.
Dr. Paula Johnson has certainly made an immense impact on healthcare for women globally and has set an incredible example of inspiring and empowering women. We can all learn from her dedication to improving the wellbeing of women and women of color.
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