THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Frances Conley, MD

August 12, 1940 – August 5, 2024

“At Bryn Mawr, I saw women as professors and student body presidents, women who sparkled with wit and intelligence and were highly motivated to do something important with their lives. At Bryn Mawr, I learned I had the intelligence to do whatever I wanted in life.”

A trailblazing neurosurgeon at Stanford Medicine who became the country’s first female tenured professor in neurosurgery in 1981. Resigned from Stanford University to protest the medical school’s unabashed gender discrimination in 1991.