Two to Receive Chancellor's Award for Advancement of Women

The recipients of this year's Chancellor's Award for the Advancement of Women are Ruth Greenblatt, a professor of clinical medicine and epidemiology in the Department of Medicine, and Anjali Kumar, a fourth-year resident in the Department of Surgery at UCSF. In addition, Ruth Weiller, business manager in the Office of the Chancellor, will be recognized for her unique and extensive contributions to women on campus over many years. Chancellor Mike Bishop will present these awards at the annual ceremony on Monday, March 6, at noon in Toland Hall on the UCSF Parnassus campus. Light refreshments will be served. Ruth Greenblatt
Considered one of the University's top leaders, Greenblatt is recognized for her commitment and dedication to fostering a fair and equitable academic climate and her many years as a mentor to both men and women at UCSF. She is highly regarded for her extensive University service, which has focused on diversity issues and advocacy efforts as a member of the Committee on Equal Opportunity, the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on the Status of Women and the Chancellor's Task Force on the Climate for Faculty. Greenblatt's research has focused on the epidemiology and pathogenesis of HIV and she has authored more than 80 scientific papers. She is principal investigator of the Northern California site of the Women's Interagency HIV Study, which is the largest cohort study of HIV in women. She has chaired the National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research Priority Setting Committee on Clinical Epidemiology and has been a member of the National Institutes of Dental and Craniofacial Diseases Research council. Here at UCSF she is chair of the Parnassus General Clinical Research Center Advisory Committee, co-director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research Mentoring Program and a member of the Chancellor's Council on Faculty Life. Greenblatt also was honored with the prestigious Women in Medicine Leadership Development Award by the Association of American Medical Colleges at its annual meeting in 2005. Anjali Kumar
A fourth-year resident in the Department of Surgery, Kumar is advancing women and women's health in a number of ways. Kumar has worked with a large data set at Kaiser-Permanente to establish a negative relationship between the use of statins and estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. Her research has explored this relationship both epidemiologically and mechanistically. Atypical for a general surgeon, she has chosen to extend her training to include reproductive health services and sought out a mentor, Karen Meckstroth, in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences to teach her procedures. During the past two years, while a resident researcher with Laura Esserman, she also has volunteered in the Women's Options Center at UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion. Finally, Kumar participates in the teaching of the medical school's anatomy block in which she serves as role model for entering students, particularly women, who have an interest in surgery. Anjali Kumar's photo by Sarah Paris