THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Vivian W. Pinn, M.D.

“Not everybody thinks about giving attention to women’s health as being something other than what’s expected, and it really isn’t. It’s something we had to fight for, and we still continue to fight for.”

Lifelong advocate for women’s health. President of the National Medical Association after serving in many other capacities including as Speaker of the House of Delegates and Trustee, 1989. First director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) in the Office of the Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 1991. B.A. Wellesley College, 1963. M.D. University of Virginia School of Medicine, 1967.

Interviewed by Judy Waxman, Oral Historian, November 2023

Photo. The 20th anniversary of the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, (from left) former NIH director Bernadine Healy, U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) and ORWH director Vivian Pinn, 2010.