Two of Emory’s best physicians celebrated at national exhibit

May 8 , 2006
Two of Emory’s best physicians celebrated at national exhibit

by Christi Gray

A traveling exhibit, part of which goes on display today at the CDC, celebrates the lives and accomplishments of American women in medicine, and the show features two of Emory’s best: the School of Medicine’s Flavia Mercado (pediatrics) and Nanette Wenger (internal medicine/cardiology).

The exhibit, “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians,” profiles more than 330 women in medicine, both past and present (including several Nobel Prize winners), highlighting their lives and work in research, patient care, education, administration and community service.

The exhibit breaks away from the traditional format of matted images and nameplates and offers a multimedia approach: Video and interactive kiosks provide biographies, lesson plans, educational activities and information on medical careers. These materials also can be accessed online also at the exhibit’s interactive website: www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine.

A condensed version of the exhibition will be on view at CDC’s Tom Harkin Global Communications Center exhibit area until June 16, where viewers can glimpse into the lives of Mercado and Wenger, along with other medical pioneers, innovators and educators.

Nanette Wenger first came to Emory in 1958 as a senior resident in medicine and was named full professor of medicine in 1971. She has served as a consultant for the Emory Heart and Vascular Center since 1995.

She was named director of cardiac clinics and director of the ambulatory electrocardiography laboratory in the 1960s, and in 1998 was named chief of cardiology. She is currently professor of medicine in the division of cardiology and director of the cardiac clinics at Grady Hospital.

Some of Wenger’s accolades include being named one of Time magazine’s Women of the Year in 1976.
Also, she received the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) Woman in Science President’s Award in 1993 and the American Heart Association’s Physician of the Year in 1998. In 2000, for her contributions to preventive medicine, she was presented the James D. Bruce Memorial Award of the American College of Physicians and the Elizabeth Blackwell Award.

Flavia Mercado earned her M.D. from Emory in 1988 and is assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine’s Lindbergh Children’s Center. She is also associate director of multicultural affairs for Grady Health Systems and an emergency-department pediatrician at Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital.

In 1999, Mercado was selected for the Leadership Fellowship Program of the National Hispanic Medical Association. She serves on the executive board of Cool Girls Inc., a mentorship program for young girls from impoverished backgrounds, as well as on the steering committee of the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia, and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Changing the Face of Medicine” has three major themes (“Setting Their Sights,” “Making Their Mark” and “Changing Medicine), each with three subthemes. The portion on display at CDC is sponsored by the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, the Morehouse School of Medicine Library and the Center for Disease Control Information Center (CDIC). The full exhibition was displayed at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Md., from 2003–05. The CDIC is one of more than 60 institutions to host the traveling exhibit.

A reception honoring Georgia’s physicians in the exhibit, including not only Wenger and Mercado but also Eliza Ann Grier (the first African American to practice in Georgia) and Julie Gerberding (current CDC director) will be held on May 10 at 5:30 p.m. at the CDIC exhibit area. A panel discussion of women physicians, including the two Emory women, will follow at 6:30 p.m.

To RSVP for the reception, contact the CDIC at icinfo@cdc.gov or 404-639-1717. Attendees will need a driver’s license or passport.

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