Medical Pioneer. The first woman to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the first physician in charge of the Red Cross, she shall perhaps better remembered for founding the Women's Health Initiative and raising awareness that coronary artery disease is not a men-only phenomenon. Raised in Long Island City, Queens, she graduated from Hunter High School, earned top honors at Vassar College, and in 1970 received her M.D. from Harvard. After training in cardiology Dr. Healy became a full professor at Johns Hopkins in 1981 then in the mid 1980s served as President Reagan's deputy science advisor. While practicing in Cleveland from 1985 until 1991 she held the presidency of the American Heart Association in 1988 and 1989; named to head NIH by President Bush in 1991, Dr. Healy began the Women's Health Initiative and was responsible for teaching not only the general public but physicians as well that women can indeed develop heart disease. Replaced by a Democratic appointee in 1993 she ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 1994 then was on the faculty at Ohio State University from 1995 to 1999. Directing the Red Cross from 1999 until 2001 she had to fight a complicated bureaucracy but was able to improve blood transfusion safety, then found herself forced out over controversy surrounding her agency's response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Dr. Healy was for a time President Bush's advisor on bioterrorism, lived her final days in suburban Cleveland, and died having had a brain tumor for 13 years.
Medical Pioneer. The first woman to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the first physician in charge of the Red Cross, she shall perhaps better remembered for founding the Women's Health Initiative and raising awareness that coronary artery disease is not a men-only phenomenon. Raised in Long Island City, Queens, she graduated from Hunter High School, earned top honors at Vassar College, and in 1970 received her M.D. from Harvard. After training in cardiology Dr. Healy became a full professor at Johns Hopkins in 1981 then in the mid 1980s served as President Reagan's deputy science advisor. While practicing in Cleveland from 1985 until 1991 she held the presidency of the American Heart Association in 1988 and 1989; named to head NIH by President Bush in 1991, Dr. Healy began the Women's Health Initiative and was responsible for teaching not only the general public but physicians as well that women can indeed develop heart disease. Replaced by a Democratic appointee in 1993 she ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 1994 then was on the faculty at Ohio State University from 1995 to 1999. Directing the Red Cross from 1999 until 2001 she had to fight a complicated bureaucracy but was able to improve blood transfusion safety, then found herself forced out over controversy surrounding her agency's response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Dr. Healy was for a time President Bush's advisor on bioterrorism, lived her final days in suburban Cleveland, and died having had a brain tumor for 13 years.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
Family Members
Advertisement
See more Healy memorials in:
Advertisement
