T
he Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academies, has announced the selection of 70 new members. Election to the Institute of Medicine is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. With the 70 new members, there are now 1,753 active fellows of the Institute of Medicine along with 120 foreign associates.
While the Institute of Medicine does not disclose the racial or ethnic makeup of its membership, it appears that only three of the 70 new members are African Americans.
Phyllis A. Dennery is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. She is chief of the division of neonatology and holds the Werner and Gertrude Henle Chair in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Dr. Dennery received her medical degree at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and completed a fellowship in neonatology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Thomas A. LaVeist is the William C. and Nancy F. Richardson Professor in Health Policy at the Bloomberg School of Public Health of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Professor LaVeist is a graduate of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He earned a Ph.D. in medical sociology from the University of Michigan. Dr. LaVeist is the author of Minority Populations and Health: An Introduction to Health Disparities in the United States (Jossey-Bass, 2005) and the co-editor of Race, Ethnicity and Health: A Public Health Reader (Jossey-Bass, 2012).
Beverly Louise Malone is the chief executive officer of the National League of Nursing in New York City. Previously, she served as general secretary for the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom and as deputy assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She is a past president of the American Nurses Association.
Dr. Malone holds a master’s degree in adult psychiatric nursing from Rutgers University in New Jersey and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Cincinnati.
