The Drexel University College of Medicine’s Institute for Women’s Health in Leadership (IWHL) has selected the recipients of the 2006 Marion Spencer Fay Award and the 2007 WOMAN ONE Award. The announcement was made by IWHL Director Lynn Yeakel.

Epidemiologist Dr. M. Cristina Leske of the State University of New York School of Medicine at Stony Brook will receive the Marion Spencer Fay Award and cancer researcher Dr. Janet Davison Rowley from the University of Chicago will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards will be presented at Philadelphia’s Pyramid Club on December 4 at 4:30 p.m.

Leske is recognized as a leader in the study of glaucoma and other eye diseases in populations of African descent. The Distinguished Professor and Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Preventive Medicine and Ophthalmology at SUNY Stony Brook, she has been honored for contributions to the public health field, leadership in breast cancer and prostate cancer research and her ability to train future scientists and physicians. Prior to the award presentations, Leske will deliver a lecture on the prevention of blindness and delivery of eye care.

Rowley, the Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, has been called “one of the most important scientists of the 20th Century” for her pioneering studies of the genetic basis of cancer and her discoveries, which have had a distinct influence on the treatment of patients with leukemia.

Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will receive the 2007 WOMAN ONE award at a ceremony on April 23, 2007 at the Rittenhouse Hotel. Funds raised from event will provide scholarship support for minority women attending DUCoM.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is American’s largest health philanthropy. The organization is devoted to opening up access to quality health care at reasonable cost and to improving care for those with chronic conditions. In addition to her position at the Foundation, Lavizzo-Mourey has worked in academic medicine as an independent researcher and in helping formulate government health policies. She has been consistently cited as one of Philadelphia’s top physicians.

For more information on the Marion Spencer Fay and WOMAN ONE Awards and ceremonies, contact the IWHL at 215-255-7373 or iwhl@drexel.edu.