Mentorship, Advocacy, and Justice: The 2020 Women in Medicine Award Winners

The Elizabeth Kirk Rose, M’26, INT’30 Women in Medicine Award recognizes the extraordinary record of commitment and contributions to advancing the education and careers of women in academic medicine by an alumna, faculty, or staff member.

A celebration of Women in Medicine has occurred annually since 1962, when Elizabeth Kirk Rose, M’26, INT’30, began holding picnics for women students and alumnae as a way for them to encourage and support one another.

More recently, the celebration has been an awards luncheon sponsored by the Elizabeth Blackwell Society and Penn Medicine Development and Alumni Relations for students, faculty, and alumni. This year will mark a new milestone: the first virtual celebration of this award.

Please join us for the Elizabeth Kirk Rose, M’26, INT’30 Women in Medicine Celebration on Thursday, Feb. 4, from 2–3 p.m. EST.  Click here to register.

This year’s recipients are Marie A. Bernard, M’76; Dana Beyer, M’78; and Carmen Guerra, GM’06, MSCE, FACP. 

Marie A. Bernard, M’76, is Deputy Director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the acting NIH Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bernard’s research focuses on nutrition and function in older populations with special focus on underrepresented minorities, as well as related to geriatric education.

She has served numerous national leadership roles, including on the National Institute on Aging Advisory Council, during which she chaired the Council’s Task Force on Minority Aging Research; chair of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Research Advisory Committee; president of the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education; and president of the Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs.

Dana Beyer, M’78, is a retired eye surgeon who has been an advocate on public health issues, including research on the effects of DES and endocrine disruptors on human sexuality and reproduction. She was lead staffer passing the first countywide ban of artificial trans fats in the U.S., helping to lead to the disappearance of trans fats from the national marketplace.

For eight years Dr. Beyer was Executive Director of Gender Rights Maryland, the state’s trans political organization, which worked to bring the Maryland gender identity bill to passage in 2014.  She has served on the Rules Committee of the national Democratic Party and has twice run for state delegate and twice for state Senate in Maryland’s District 18. She was inducted into the Montgomery County Human Rights Hall of Fame in 2014 and served on the county’s Committee on Hate/Violence from 2015–18.

Carmen Guerra, GM’06, MSCE, FACP, is the Ruth C. and Raymond G. Perelman Associate Professor of Medicine, the Vice Chair of Diversity and Inclusion in the Department of Medicine, and Associate Director of Diversity and Outreach at the Abramson Cancer Center. She also serves as an Advisory Dean of students for the Dr. Helen O. Dickens House at the Perelman School of Medicine.

Her research focuses on better understanding and eliminating barriers to access cancer screening, prevention, and promoting clinical treatment trials for underserved populations. She is the founding co-director of the Penn Medicine Colorectal Cancer Screening Navigation Program and the Penn Breast Health Initiative/Healthy Woman Program, which have improved access to cancer screening tests for thousands of underserved patients in the Philadelphia region.

Dr. Guerra has also brought local and national media attention to the exacerbation of health disparities by COVID-19.