The Changing Face of Medicine: Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson

The National Library of Medicine has organized an exhibition honoring the lives and accomplishments of women doctors who are making a difference in the world of medicine. The exhibition, "Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians" is on display at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Tribal Connections will devote a space each month to featuring accomplished Native American women doctors from this exhibit.

Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson's grandfather was a Navajo medicine man, and she is carrying on the family tradition by working as a public health physician specializing in the health care of American Indians. In 2000 Dr. Nez Henderson became the first American Indian woman to graduate from the Yale University School of Medicine and was the first person to receive the Patricia Nez Award, to honor a Yale School of Medicine graduate committed to improving the health of American Indians.

Dr. Nez Henderson did her undergraduate work at the University of Arizona and earned a master of public health degree, also at Yale. During her last two years of medical school, she completed clinical clerkships with the Indian Health Service. During her last year of medical school, she decided that she would best serve American Indian and Alaskan Native people through a career in public health. After earning her doctor of medicine, Dr. Nez Henderson was recruited to the faculty at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center as an assistant professor in the Division of American Indian and Alaska Native Programs. She was one of three faculty members who joined the Native Elder Research Center as a "Native Investigator."

During the past few years, Dr. Nez Henderson's work has focused on reducing smoking among American Indians. Her research findings have been presented at several national conferences including the National Institute on Aging, the Resource Center for Minority Aging Research, the Indian Health Services Research Conference and the Association of American Indian Physicians Annual Conference.

Dr. Nez Henderson also serves as vice president for the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health, an American Indian nonprofit organization established in 1998 to address the myriad health needs of Northern Plains tribes.

To view the entire profile of Dr. Nez Henderson, please visit http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_147.html