Founded in 1993, the Lynn Yeakel Institute for Women's Health and Leadership was designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a vanguard National Center of Excellence in Women's Health in 1996. The Institute continues the medical school's over 160-year commitment to pioneering programs for women in medicine and beyond. The Institute functions as a department within the College of Medicine and is the only institute recognized in the medical school's faculty bylaws. Nancy Spector, MD, is the Betty A. Cohen Chair and executive director of the Institute and the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program.

With the overall theme "Making a World of Difference," the Institute pursues its mission to "honor the past, enrich the present and shape the future." It does this by building local, state, national and international relationships that help women lead healthier and more fulfilling lives.

Lynn H. Yeakel, the visionary director of the Institute for Women's Health and Leadership and Betty A. Cohen Chair in Women's Health, passed away January 13, 2022. We mourn her passing along with the nationwide coalition of leaders and organizations that answered her calls to work together for gender equity in decision-making positions across business and government. It was announced during the 2022 Woman One ceremony that the Institute would be renamed the Lynn Yeakel Institute for Women's Health and Leadership to honor Lynn's legacy. If you’d like to make a gift in support of the Institute and in Lynn's memory, please go to giving.drexel.edu/yeakel.

ELAM

The Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® program, or ELAM®, works to increase the number and impact of women in academic leadership positions.

Participants in this one-year, part-time fellowship enhance their capacity for leadership and innovation through training in four essential dimensions of leadership:

• Personal and professional leadership effectiveness to address strategic, operational, and relational challenges.
• Strategic finance and resource management to enhance the missions of academic organizations.
• Organizational dynamics to provide strategies for leading, executing, and managing change initiatives.
• Communities of leadership practice to sustain leadership development beyond the fellowship year.

Special Programs

• Conversations About Women's Health are fast-paced and interactive expert-led discussions. The panel of doctors — moderated by Lynn Yeakel — answer a wide variety of questions from the audience. These informative and lively programs have resulted in numerous life changing testimonials and have improved the health of women (and the men who love them).
• The Marion Spencer Fay Award is presented in honor of Marion Spencer Fay, PhD, dean and president of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania from 1946 to 1963. The National Board for Women in Medicine established an award in her name in 1963 to recognize her pioneering leadership. The award includes a $10,000 honorarium.
• The Helen I. Moorehead-Laurencin, MD, Sex and Gender Research Forum is an interactive program that highlights Drexel's multidisciplinary research focused on sex and gender in a local, national and global context.
• 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.
• The Woman One program has created the D. Walter Cohen Shared Leadership Scholarship 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.

In the Media

To stop 'she-cession,' employers need to better meet women's work needs, advocates say
KYW Newsradio, June 20, 2021

Vision 2020 National Congress coverage
NBC10, June 15, 2021

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