Alumni Success Stories: Vanessa Northington Gamble
Profession:
Physician and Medical Historian
Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble, left, with Janet "JR" Russell, White-Williams Scholars Trustee. Dr. Gamble is shown accepting the Alumni Achievement Award.
Position:
Deputy Director, Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Associate Professor of General Internal Medicine and History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Director, Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care.Education:
Philadelphia High School for Girls, Class of 1970. Hampshire College, 1974, BA in Medical Sociology and Human Biology. University of Pennsylvania, 1983, MD. University of Pennsylvania, 1987, PhD in History and Sociology of Science.Home:
Washington DCWhat effect did White-Williams Scholars have on your life?
I began receiving money from White-Williams when I was a junior at Girls High School. My parents had separated when I was in elementary school and my mother had to raise two daughters on her own. My mother worked full time as a presser in a dry cleaners. However, money was always tight because the job was low paying. The money that I received from White-Williams was an important supplement to my family's income. It enabled me to devote my time and energy to my schoolwork and not have to take on a job to help support my family. Because I was able to focus on school, I graduated summa cum laude from Girls High. My academic success in high school set the foundation for my later academic and professional achievements.
Why do you contribute to support current Scholars?
I think that it is the obligation of all scholars who have the financial resources to support the program. I view it as repaying a debt. I think that it is critical for all former scholars to remember the significance of this program in their lives and work to ensure its continued success.
Biography
As a champion of equal access to quality medical care for all Americans, West Philadelphia native Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble has addressed many audiences, including Congress, President Clinton, and government agencies.
Dr. Gamble, a 1970 Philadelphia High School for Girls graduate and former White-Williams Scholars, is an inspiration to graduating Scholars with her story about how a strong education allowed her to rise above poverty, break racial barriers, and become a leading medical historian policy maker, and social activist.
Dr. Gamble was raised by her mother and grandmother. Money was very tight for their family, so tight that had her guidance counselor not introduced a young Vanessa Gamble to White-Williams Scholars, the teenager would have been working everyday after school rather than studying and participating in extracurricular activities. "The support of the program allowed me to participate in many activities which would have been closed to me," says Dr. Gamble. "I was able to enjoy being a teenager, instead of needing to find an after-school job. I was able to be class president with dreams of future leadership opportunities. White-Williams Scholars made it possible for me to focus deeply on my studies and succeed at a very competitive, challenging high school. By helping me transform promise into accomplishment, this support paved the way for my current success." Like many scholars, Dr. Gamble was championed at home. Her family believed she would grow up to be a doctor and supported her in pursuing her dream. After graduating summa cum laude from Girls' High, Dr. Gamble graduated from Hampshire College, earned her MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and became the first African-American woman granted tenure at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. In 2002, Dr. Gamble finished an appointment as Vice President of the Division of Community and Minority programs at the Association of American Medical Colleges. She was also the first health commentator for "The Tavis Smiley Show" on National Public Radio. She is currently Deputy Director for Education and Training for the Center for Health Disparities Solutions and an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Dr. Gamble received national recognition as chair of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee. She first became interested in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in college, where she wrote her senior thesis about this tragic medical experiment. Her leadership of the Legacy Committee prompted an apology from President Clinton for the treatment of poor, African American men who were deliberately denied health care by the federal government for forty years.
Dr. Gamble symbolizes White-Williams Scholars' success. In a city with a greater than 50 percent drop-out rate, every Scholar graduates from high school. A vast majority, 96 percent, goes on to college, and 93 percent come back to Philadelphia to live and work.
