2 minute read
First Person
“We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams”
Curiosity, scientific passion, and a commitment to social justice fuels one student’s dream to shape the future of healthcare.
When biology faculty Gail Lima came to SISTERS, Winsor’s Black Affinity Group, promoting the YES for CURE Program, Emma Charity ’21 applied (at her mother’s urging). After three years of summer research projects and biomedical research, Emma talks about her experience.
Why are you interested in this field? My extended family on my Black side have all, in some way, experienced prejudice in the American health care system. Knowing that I am taking steps to create a more inclusive future and make them proud of me is very rewarding. My grandparents, retired physicians themselves, faced unimaginable obstacles to even exist in the medical space. The opportunities I have available are immense compared to even two generations ago, not to mention the centuries preceding.
How do health and institutionalized racism collide in your work with the YES for CURE Program at Dana Farber and the Harvard Cancer Center? The fight for proportional research inclusion, primarily geographic and racial, is viewed as a way to combat institutionalized racism in medical treatment. Genetic cancer research is the foundation upon which physicians build their future cancer treatments. If research is not equipped with a diverse study population, then future genetic treatments may not have the capability to treat all populations equally. We are quantifying the disparity in research inclusion specifically for prostate cancer genetic research.
What’s been most surprising about your health equity work? I have been surprised by both the extreme good and extreme injustices existing in the medical sphere. Some statistics and narratives around health equity are truly horrifying. On the flip side, there are doctors of all colors from all over the world creating a sort of social movement within medicine to make a change, which I find extremely impressive and promising.
Jane Mayer P’91, ’95, GP’25
When Jane Mayer P’91, ’95, GP’25 reflects on “Winsor’s legacy to our family,” she says that it is rooted in the positive experience and lasting impact it had on daughters Erica Mayer ’91 and Rachel Mayer Judlowe ‘95. “They arrived at Winsor with very different talents, and both benefited enormously from the first rate education they received here,” she says. Both students went on to graduate from Williams College, where Erica earned the distinction of becoming the school’s first female science valedictorian. “The underpinnings of the fantastic young women they have become were forged at Winsor,” Jane adds proudly.
Gracious and forward thinking, Jane and Robert Mayer chose to include Winsor in their estate planning. Their gift will continue to build on their Winsor legacy, and help ensure others, like granddaughter Kate Drachman ‘25, will have the same life-changing opportunities their daughters had.
Have you remembered Winsor in your will or retirement plan? Let us know and we’ll welcome you to the Lamp of Learning Society. Please contact Anna Fravel P’28, senior philanthropic advisor, at afravel@winsor.edu.
www.winsor.edu/giving
THE WINSOR SCHOOL 103 Pilgrim Road Boston, Massachusetts 02215 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
If you have received this for your alumna daughter who is living elsewhere, please let us know by contacting Alumnae Relations at (617) 912-1321 or alumnae@winsor.edu.
CAPTURING THE MOMENT
Seniors gathered on the terrace to celebrate their final week on campus as a class.
NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID AUGUSTA , ME PERMIT NO 121
