Lasting Legacies – Alumni making a difference

The College of Medicine has trained women researchers who are making a difference in the world.

Mary Guinan, MD, PhD

Guinan completed her residency at Hershey Medical Center in the early 1970’s. In 1984, she went on to become the first woman to serve as chief scientific advisor at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She was among the first scientists in America to identify the emerging AIDS cases of the 1980s as part of a larger epidemic of a new disease.

Deborah Birx, MD

Birx earned her medical degree from the College of Medicine in 1980. She served as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Renee Yura, PhD

As a diagnostics director at Pfizer, Yura works in precision medicine developing companion diagnostic tests to select optimal treatments for different groups of people based on their individual genetics.

Tricia Burdo, PhD

Burdo is an associate professor and associate chair of education in the Department of Neuroscience at Temple University School of Medicine. Her research has focused on monocyte traffic and pathology in central and peripheral nervous system and heart during simian immunodeficiency virus and HIV infection.

Renee Yura, PhD

Tricia Burdo, PhD

If you're having trouble accessing this content, or would like it in another format, please email the Penn State College of Medicine web department.