Table of Contents
CSW Banquet Honors Outstanding Women and Mentors
Very smart, very tough, very dedicated, very creative and visionary.
Nancy Dickey, M.D., receives the Distinguished
Professional Woman Award from Carlos Moreno,
M.D., chairman of the Department of Family
Medicine
at the UT Medical School at Houston.
Photos by Ester
Fant
That’s how The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston President James T. Willerson, M.D., described Nancy W. Dickey, M.D., at the Dec. 6 Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) Annual Awards Banquet.
Dickey received the 2006 CSW Distinguished Professional Woman Award. A graduate of the UT Medical School at Houston, she is president of the Texas A&M Health Science Center and vice chancellor for health affairs for the Texas A&M University System. She was the first woman ever to be elected president of the American Medical Association.
“We have great pride in being able to give her this honor tonight in recognition as one of the outstanding women physicians and leaders, not just in our city and our state, but in our country and our world,” Dr. Willerson said.
In her acceptance remarks, Dickey acknowledged the importance of a supportive husband and family and of mentors in her success. “How tremendously important you are to the next generation,” she said to those who were honored as outstanding mentors. Their encouragement leads “to remarkably fun and exciting things.”
Dickey, who practiced family medicine for 10 years, was nominated for the award and introduced at the banquet by Carlos Moreno, M.D., holder of the C. Frank Webber, M.D., Chair in Family Medicine and chairman of the Department of Family Medicine.
Special Recognition
A special award was presented to Camille Lloyd, Ph.D., founding director of the Student Counseling Service, for her untiring leadership in support of women during 29 years of service to the health science center.
Camille Lloyd, Ph.D., was honored for her
leadership in support of women at the UT
Health Science Center at Houston.
“From her chosen career of psychologist, she has dedicated her life to the mental well being of others,” said Karen Adler Storthz, Ph.D., associate dean for research at the UT Dental Branch at Houston.
In 1982 Lloyd joined the Committee on the Status of Women. In 1984 – the year of Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton and vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro – she spearheaded the establishment of an annual dinner for women and a Distinguished Professional Woman Award.
“What a wonderful tradition you began here,” Storthz said. During her career, Lloyd has won other accolades, but establishing the Student Counseling Service and the annual CSW awards banquet are the two accomplishments of which she is most proud. “I probably assisted over 2,000 students,” Lloyd recalled. “What a great opportunity to make a difference. … If I could give a good mental health experience to these future health care professionals, it would affect their medical or nursing or public health practice for the next 40 or 50 years.”
The establishment of the CSW Distinguished Professional Woman Award Banquet was a result of Lloyd’s strategic decision to find a positive method for ensuring that women had opportunities and that doors were open to them. “The positive method being, let’s honor women with exceptional accomplishments,” she said. “Who could argue with that?”
The common thread she found between the two accomplishments of which she is so proud is, “Let’s not derail people with potential, people with talent, either because of some specific stressors in their lives, or some disabling anxiety, or for some reason of prejudice or gender or something else.”
Lloyd challenged the health science center to “make sure we continue to open those doors and that we truly appreciate our employees and their contributions.”
Mentor Awards
CSW Chair Stephanie Tamborello and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs L. Maximilian Buja, M.D., presented the President’s Award for Mentoring Women to three individuals:
Faculty – John H. Byrne, Ph.D., holder of the June and Virgil Waggoner Chair and professor and chairman of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Medical School;
Administrative and professional – Paula O’Neill, Ed.D., associate dean for educational research and professional development, UT Dental Branch at Houston; and
Classified staff – Virginia Wall, social work supervisor in the Department of Pediatrics, Medical School.
By Ina Fried, Institutional Advancement