What a great time to be a female physician in the field of medicine! When I graduated from the University of Mississippi Medical School in 1980 approximately 20% of my class were women. Today in both UMMC and William Carey Medical Schools almost half the students are female.
How different and difficult was it for Dr. Nell Ryan, a native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and a Millsaps graduate to be the first female to graduate from the University of Mississippi Medical School when it became a four-year program on the Jackson campus in 1955? Dr. Ryan went on to become a professor of pediatrics and had a reputation of being hard to please as an attending. It is only in retrospect that I understand her demanding style was because she wanted her students and residents to be knowledgeable about the patients and their health issues. I suspect being the only female in her medical school class focused her desire to be the best and expect no less from others.
About a decade later, Dr. Patricia Moynihan graduated from UMMC and went on to be the first female chief surgery resident under the legendary Dr. James Hardy. In 1970 she joined Dr. Alex Haller at Johns Hopkins University as the first female Pediatric Surgery Fellow at that institution. I got to know Dr. Moynihan during a pediatric surgery rotation in New Orleans my M4 year. In addition to being a tremendously gifted surgeon, she was a loving wife and mother as well as a gracious host to me as a visiting Mississippi medical student. In the operating room she was efficient and thorough. She didn’t wait around for the staff to break down her operating room, but would join in the process to turn her room around – even mopping the floor on occasion. This same hard-working surgeon insisted that I and the surgical intern rooming with me for the month come over to her home to wash our clothes and be treated to lunch.
That surgical intern was none other than MSMA’s first female president, Dr. Candace Keller. It was a pleasure to room with Candace during that oppressively hot, humid August in New Orleans in 1979. I’m not surprised that Candace went on to be a leader in our organization, as well as the state and national anesthesia associations. I always appreciated her suggestions after each Annual Session when I served as Speaker of the House of Delegates.
I have enjoyed the friendship and support of the other two outstanding ladies who have preceded me as MSMA president. Dr. Helen Turner brought a quiet but unflappable style to the office of president and the University of Mississippi Medical Center was fortunate to have her as a leader.
I have known Past President Dwalia South longer than I have known any of the other outstanding female physicians mentioned here since she and I were in the same class in medical school. Dwalia is the same person today as I met on my first day of medical school in 1976. She is a fun-loving yet hard working Family Medicine physician. Don’t ask Dwalia for her opinion if a blunt but truthful answer will hurt your feelings. I am honored to serve as your fourth female MSMA president, and I am sure that there will be many more in the years to come. There is a plethora of women physicians in leadership roles in their communities and at MSMA and I look forward to them becoming the voice of MSMA.
Don’t worry fellas, we are not planning to take over … just planning to take our turn!
