Vanessa Northington Gamble

Vanessa Northington Gamble is University Professor of Medical Humanities, Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Health Policy and American Studies at the George Washington University. She is internationally recognized as a pioneering and influential researcher on the history of race and racism in American medicine and public health. A physician, scholar, and activist, her honors include membership in the National Academy of Medicine and on the National Council on the Humanities.

Vanessa’s project is the biography Pioneering Health Equity: The Life and Medical Career of Dr. Virginia M. Alexander. Alexander (1899-1949) was an African-American physician-activist who crafted a career that combined medicine, research, and activism and emerged as a leading pioneer of racial justice and health equity. This book goes beyond chronicling the life of an individual black woman physician. It uses her biography to illuminate the impact of medical racism on the lives of African Americans.