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Contact: Media Relations Officer, (202) 828-0041.
AAMC Names Wisconsin's Gamble to Head Minority Programs
Washington, D.C., September 29, 1999 -- The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) announces the appointment of Vanessa Northington Gamble, M.D., Ph.D., to head the Association's Division of Community and Minority Programs. Dr. Gamble is currently associate professor of History of Medicine and Family Medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison.
"Dr. Gamble's well established and nationally recognized expertise in the area of race and medicine will take the Association to the next level in its efforts to encourage underrepresented minorities to pursue careers in the health professions, " said AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen, M.D. "Her leadership is especially needed at a time when programs to encourage diversity in higher education are under increasing scrutiny and attack."
Dr. Gamble's research interests include the history of American medicine and public health, health policy, and issues of race and racism in medicine. She has written numerous award-winning books including, "Making a Place for Ourselves: The Black Hospital Movement, 1920-1945", and is currently working on a history of black women physicians. While at Wisconsin, Dr. Gamble has also developed one of the first courses in the country to examine the history of race, American medicine and public health.
Dr. Gamble has served as a consultant or committee member for numerous national organizations, including the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, the Institute of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Also, Dr. Gamble chaired the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee that played an integral role in securing a presidential apology to the study participants and family members.
"I look forward to joining the AAMC and building on the Association's long-standing commitment to create opportunities for minorities in medicine," said Dr. Gamble. "It is important that as our country becomes more culturally rich our physician workforce appreciates and reflects this diversity."
Dr. Gamble replaces Herbert Nickens, M.D., who died unexpectedly in March 1999. Dr. Nickens headed the AAMC's community and minority programs since 1988. During that time the AAMC moved into the forefront of the medical community's efforts to support affirmative action and diversify the physician workforce. The AAMC sponsors a number of national initiatives established to encourage the participation of underrepresented minorities in the health professions, including Project 3000 by 2000, the Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI), the Minority Medical Education Program (MMEP) and the Health Professions for Diversity coalition.
Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin faculty in 1989, Dr. Gamble taught at the Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Massachusetts, and Hampshire College, where she also served on the Board of Trustees. Dr. Gamble holds a bachelor's degree from Hampshire College, a medical degree and a Ph.D. in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania. She did residency training in family medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.
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The Association of American Medical Colleges represents the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools; the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools; some 400 major teaching hospitals, including 74 Veterans Administration medical centers; 87 academic and professional societies representing nearly 88,000 faculty members; and the nation's 67,000 medical students and 102,000 residents.
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