THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Fann Harding, Ph.D.

January 1930 –  April 4, 2019

“I filed the discrimination suit against three of my supervisors when they refused to recognize that I had been performing as a branch chief without the appropriate title and grade salary and declared no intent to remedy the situation.” – Dr. Fann Harding, August, 1974

Founding President of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Organization for Women (known as SHER, Self Help for Equal Rights), 1970. Founding member of both the Association for Women in Science, 1971, and the Federation of Organizations for Professional Women, 1972. In the early 1970s filed the first sex discrimination complaint against the National Institutes of Health and won the case in 1974. Board of trustees of the National Woman’s Party.

Photo 1. Dr. Fann Harding honored with the American Association of Blood Banking (AABB) Distinguished Service Award, 1991. Photo 2. Dr. Fann Harding and Sonia Pressman Fuentes.