ASTHO Celebrates Women’s History Through the Decades
March 23, 2023 | Kimberlee Wyche-Etheridge
With a movie ticket costing $2.50 and gas hovering at $1.10 / gallon, the year 1984 ushered in many new eras. Apple debuted the Macintosh personal computer with its Superbowl commercial based on George Orwell’s dystopic novel in the Winter. Over the next generation, this technology would change the way we interact with the world. Prince’s Purple Rain and the accompanying concert-type movie were released, ushering in a new generation of forever fans.
Space travel catapulted into the future with the launch of the space shuttle Discovery, which flew an additional 38 times. Childhood hunger took center stage with the release of the benefit song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid, which would sell millions of copies and raise millions of dollars. It was the Eighties—a key decade in U.S. history. It also marked a critical first in ASTHO’s history.
ASTHO has a long history of pioneering women leaders. Below, you'll find several of them whose work has inspired mine. (Read the full list of ASTHO's women presidents.)
1980s
After 42 years of public health work and leadership, ASTHO elected its first woman president—Kristine Moore Gebbie, DrPH, RN (alumni-WA)—in 1984. Gebbie was an educator who taught generations of nursing students around the world. She was a public health practitioner and served as Secretary of Washington State’s Department of Health. Her legacy highlights the importance of working across multiple levels of government and healthcare agencies, especially as it relates to preparedness.
As ASTHO president, she was a trailblazer, best known for her commitment to work focused on AIDS. While in this role, she was tapped to serve as the first White House AIDS Policy Coordinator. She received numerous awards and accolades from many different organizations, including the American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA).
1990s
In 1992, Joycelyn Elders, MD (alumni-AR) also celebrated a first—becoming ASTHO’s first African American woman president. Elders served as the Director of the Arkansas Department of Health. Her public health accomplishments include reducing teen pregnancy in her state, increasing early childhood screenings as well as the percent of children immunized at 24 months. During her time in Arkansas, she was recruited to serve as Surgeon General, where she became the first African American—and only the second woman—to hold the post.
She contended with both racism and sexism while in the job, and despite criticism and waning support from the administration, she stayed true to her public health beliefs. She fervently believed that poverty plays a critical role in public health crises such as teen pregnancy, and that education is as an essential strategy to breaking the cycle of poverty. She became the first person to be board certified in pediatric endocrinology. She has published more than 100 papers focused primarily on juvenile diabetes and adolescent health.
2000s
Known for saving many lives by successfully cutting smoking rates by one-third during her time as Washington State Secretary of Health, Mary Selecky (alumni-WA) served as ASTHO president in 2003 and 2004. She holds the title as one of the nation’s longest serving secretaries of health having worked under three governors. During her time as the top state health official, Selecky moved Washington to become one of the first state health agencies to receive national accreditation. Childhood immunization rates in the state catapulted from among the bottom in the nation to in the top third. She worked to improve the state’s public health system after a 2001 earthquake. As ASTHO president, Selecky worked to elevate ASTHO’s status as a vital partner after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She worked to ensure that public health preparedness funds were granted to health departments.
2010s
Jewel Mullen, MD, MPH (alumni-CT) was serving as the Commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Public Health when she was elected President of ASTHO in 2014. During her time in Connecticut, Mullen focused on the state’s public health system, specifically chronic disease prevention programs and improving coordination between public health and medical care. She was also a crucial figure in bringing the community to the public health table.
She created an Office of Health Equity Research, Evaluation and Policy while in her role to ensure integration of health equity in the states programming. Mullen used her ASTHO presidential challenge to highlight healthy aging and issue a call to action to help older adults live and age well in their communities. Through her Presidential Challenge, states committed to healthy and safe community environments, injury and falls prevention, empowered people, Alzheimer’s plan, active living, and clinical and community preventive services.
Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH (alumni-RI) was elected ASTHO president in 2018. In that role, she led a presidential initiative encouraging state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments to build healthier, more resilient communities through community-led, place-based approaches. This initiative mobilized strategic investments to address socioeconomic and environmental determinants of health to transform systems and policies in ways to empower local communities.
Alexander-Scott has also worked as a specialist in infectious diseases for children and adults. She is board certified in pediatrics, internal medicine, pediatric infectious diseases, and adult infectious diseases, and served as faculty at Brown University in pediatrics, medicine, and public health (with a focus on health services, policy, and practice). She continues to work with ASTHO to promote health equity.
2020s
Rachel Levine, MD (alumni-PA) served as president of ASTHO in 2020. She is the first openly transgender woman to serve in the role. Levine is a pediatric and adolescent medicine physician and an educator. In 2015, while practicing clinical medicine at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center, she was nominated by the governor-elect to serve as Pennsylvania’s physician in general. Two years later, she was named as Pennsylvania Secretary of Health.
Levine led the state through the COVID-19 public health response and helped the state respond to the growing opioid epidemic. While serving as ASTHO president, the White House nominated Levine to serve as Assistant Secretary for Health. She achieved another first when she was commissioned as the first woman four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She remains a strong advocate for the well-being of LGBTQI+ youth.
Continuing in this strong tradition of trailblazing women in leadership, Anne Zink, MD (SHO-AK) took the reins as ASTHO President in September 2022. Zink plans to focus her presidency on improving health information systems to empower the public, healthcare providers, and the public health workforce with the tools and information they need to promote individual and population health.
There are others who have helped pave the way for future women leaders at ASTHO. This month of March, we celebrate all the past, present, and future women who have served as Presidents of ASTHO. We are because they were.
- 2023 Anne Zink, MD, FACEP (SHO-AK)
- 2021 Rachel Levine, MD (alumni-PA)
- 2019 Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH (alumni-RI)
- 2015 Jewel Mullen, MD, MPH, (alumni-CT)
- 2009 Judith Monroe, MD (alumni-IN)
- 2007 Mary M. Hansen, RN, PhD (alumni-IA)
- 2006 Leah Devlin, DDS, MPH (alumni-NC)
- 2004 Mary C. Selecky (alumni-WA)
- 2003 Mary C. Selecky (alumni-WA)
- 2000 Patricia A. Nolan, MD, MPH (alumni-RI)
- 1993 Molly Coye, MD (alumni-CA)
- 1992 M. Joycelyn Elders, MD (alumni-AR)
- 1990 Suzanne Dandoy, MD (alumni-VA)
- 1985 Joan K. Leavitt, MD (alumni-OK)
- 1984 Kristine Gebbie, RN (alumni-WA)