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Committee to Honor desVignes-Kendrick
Mary desVignes-Kendrick, M.D., who served as director of the City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services for 12 years, will be honored Wednesday, Dec. 8, as the 2004 Distinguished Professional Woman.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Committee on the Status of Women will honor des Vignes-Kendrick and three recipients of the President’s Award for Mentoring Women at the annual awards banquet in the Edwin Hornberger Conference Center, 2151 W. Holcombe Blvd. The banquet begins at 5:30 p.m. with a cash bar, followed at 6:30 p.m. by dinner and the awards ceremony.
Winners of the mentoring awards are Paula Knudson, the health science center’s special advisor for research involving human subjects, Administrative and Professional; Nancy Murray, Dr.P.H., assistant professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences, UT School of Public Health at Houston, Faculty; and Debra Wallis, research associate in internal medicine, UT Medical School at Houston, Classified Staff.
DesVignes-Kendrick has been professor and deputy director of the Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness at the School of Public Health since April. “In all her professional work she models excellence and integrity, whether this is as a pediatrician helping make children healthy, as director of the fourth largest health department in the country, or as president of the National Association of City/County Health Officers,” said School of Public Health Executive Dean Guy S. Parcel, Ph.D., in his letter of nomination.
Holder of a master’s degree from the School of Public Health, desVignes-Kendrick has received numerous awards and served on many national, state and local boards and committees dedicated to improving the health of the public.
Virginia C. Kennedy, Ph.D., associate professor of management and policy sciences and associate director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the School of Public Health, said, “Dr. Kendrick’s perseverance in pursuit of worthy objectives, willingness to take risks for good causes, to demonstrate grace under pressure and to exhibit quiet, but effective, leadership serve as models for women in any profession.”
The deadline is Nov. 29 to purchase banquet tickets at $25 per person. Contact Chanda Kerlegon in the office of the executive vice president for academic affairs, (713) 500-3063, or Chanda.M.Kerlegon@uth.tmc.edu.