Woman One
Ala Stanford, MD, and Ellen Yin, MBA, Honored With 2023 Woman One Award
The Lynn Yeakel Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership of Drexel University College of Medicine honored two extraordinary leaders with the 2023 Woman One Award: Ala Stanford, MD, and Ellen Yin, MBA, on Thursday, October 5 at Le Méridien in Philadelphia.
View photos from the event
Ala Stanford, the founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium and the Center for Health Equity in North Philadelphia, was honored for her leadership and commitment to eliminating health inequities and bringing care to marginalized people.
Watch Ala Stanford's tribute video
Ellen Yin, recipient of this year's James Beard Foundation Outstanding Restaurateur Award and founder of the High Street Hospitality Group, was honored for her success as a restaurateur and community leadership.
Watch Ellen Yin's tribute video
For more information about Woman One, please contact Janine Barber at jkb48@drexel.edu.
The Woman One Award and Scholarship Fund annually honors a person of exceptional leadership and raises tuition funds for talented underrepresented students at Drexel University who are committed to practicing medicine in underserved communities and promoting women, and all underrepresented communities, in medicine. Thirty-eight Scholars have received tuition support of almost $3 million since the program began in 2003. Many are currently practicing medicine in underserved communities.
D. Walter Cohen Shared Leadership Scholarship
The Woman One program has created the D. Walter Cohen Shared Leadership Scholarship, which will be awarded in 2021, to honor Dr. Cohen's role in founding Woman One and his commitment to shared leadership among women and men, while also addressing the problem of declining applications from underrepresented men in medicine. Learn more.
Woman One Scholars on the COVID-19 Pandemic Front Lines
We reached out to past Woman One Scholars to hear about how they are helping battle the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Here are three of their stories.
Annette Lopez, MD '08
Assistant Chief, Emergency Department of the Portland VA Medical Center, Portland Oregon
Medical Toxicologist,
Oregon Poison Control Center
As the assistant chief of the Emergency Department at the Portland VA in Oregon, I am currently actively working with COVID-19 patients. Unfortunately, our facility had Portland’s first case diagnosed and the first death from the virus. I was personally involved in the care of our second COVID death, which still haunts me since it was so unexpected.
Annette Lopez, MD, in her protective personal equipment on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19
Being the assistant chief, I have also been actively involved in our strategic planning within the hospital for the impending surges, going back to January. Within the last few weeks of April we expanded our Emergency Department's number of negative pressure rooms, set up a COVID screening/treatment tent for ambulatory cases, and changed our triage process to reduce exposures while awaiting Emergency Department evaluation of those at low risk for COVID-19. I have been placed in charge of monitoring peer-reviewed literature to create protocols in screening, testing and disposition decisions for patients who may have COVID-19.
In the meantime, I have been participating in a committee exploring reuse, repurposing and development of alternative personal protective equipment given the nationwide shortages. Luckily, so far, we have maintained our supplies, so we are hoping we will not be reusing equipment. I have also been actively developing ED protocols for the management of respiratory/cardiac arrests in the context of COVID-19 to ensure appropriate care while maintaining safety for providers. Given the nationwide shortages of testing supplies, I have also been working on protocols to decide who requires testing, and who is assumed positive and asked to self-isolate.
In addition, I continue my work at the Oregon Poison Center and have been doing Spanish interviews regarding the increase in bleach/disinfectant exposures due to COVID-19.
Right now, Oregon is starting talks about opening up since we have been under stay at home orders since mid-March and have been able to flatten the curve so that our hospitals have not been overrun. I am currently involved in active discussions on how to safely reopen non-emergent health care within our institution in the new normal. There are definitely many challenges ahead.
Sharron Manuel, MD, PhD '13
Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, Texas
I am directly working with possible COVID-19 patients or confirmed positive patients as we have started getting positives and a lot of suspected positives on labor and delivery. I still see Ob/Gyn patients in clinic and in hospital when covering labor and delivery, but with many more restrictions and some work from home.
I have also volunteered with our local Health Department to follow what is known as “persons under investigation” (PUI) to monitor their symptoms. I will contact these individuals to follow up on their status and report back to the Health Department in El Paso. In addition, a colleague and I are researching the effect of COVID-19 in pregnancy within our Hispanic population in El Paso (a city on the U.S./Mexico border) with a large medically underserved population. We just completed a meta-analysis on COVID-19 in pregnancy, and we hope to submit this research soon.
Ingrid Schmiederer, MD '16
General Surgery Resident, New York Presbyterian Hospital (Queens)
Post-doctoral Research Fellow, General Surgery,
Stanford University
Since graduating from Drexel University College of Medicine, I have been completing general surgery residency training in Queens, New York. I took this last academic year off to do a fellowship in educational research at Stanford. But when the pandemic hit and overwhelmed my hospital, I asked my program director if I could come back and help in the ICU.
Ingrid Schmiederer, MD, on her first day back in the ICU at New York Presbyterian Hospital (Queens) during the COVID-19 pandemic
I am currently back in Queens working in a COVID-19 ICU. It is quite a rollercoaster of emotions and physical effort. I don't know how my co-residents have been doing this for months — I've only been here for two weeks. I thought of the Woman One program during my first week here, as I would not be here serving these patients in this historic time of need without the support and generosity of Woman One and the W.W. Smith Charitable Trust, who sponsored my Woman One scholarship. This feels like the true core of what Woman One represents, and I feel that in this way I am fulfilling my promise when I was honored with the scholarship.
Past Woman One Honorees
Since the Woman One program was initiated by the IWHL in 2003, honorees have been:
- Woman One founder Lynn Yeakel (2022) | Learn more
- Cultural leader and groundbreaking artist Jeri Lynne Johnson (2020-2021) | Learn more
- Shared leadership ambassador Eileen McDonnell (2019) | Learn more
- Trailblazing scientist and community leader Gloria Twine Chisum (2018) | Learn more
- Women's leadership development advocate Molly Shepard (2017) | Learn more
- Community leader and innovator Renee Amoore (2016) | Learn more
- Philanthropist and civic activist Lynne Honickman (2015) | Learn more
- Founder of the Russell Byers Charter School Laurada Byers (2014) | Learn more
- Journalist Lisa Thomas-Laury (2013) | Learn more
- Community leader Dianne Semingson (2012) | Learn more
- Director of the Women's Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor Sara Manzano-Díaz (2011) | Learn more
- Former first lady of Drexel University Eliana Papadakis (2010)
- Former president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Jane Pepper (2009)
- City representative and director of commerce Stephanie Naidoff (2008)
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation president and CEO Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey (2007)
- Philanthropist and television personality Suzanne Roberts (2006)
- Olympic gold medalist Dawn Staley (2005)
- Attorney and community leader Leslie Anne Miller (2004)
- Pennsylvania secretary of public welfare Estelle Richman (2003)
Woman One continues to connect Drexel University College of Medicine to the greater Philadelphia community by engaging businesses and foundations in supporting Drexel's diversity initiatives.
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