Paula Johnson

Paula Johnson (born 1959) is an American cardiologist. She heads the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology and is the chief of the Division of Women's Health and director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease in Women at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, one of the first facilities in the United States that focused on heart disease in women.^[1]

Education

Johnson attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University for her undergraduate studies, where she majored in biology. She went on to Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, earning both her medical degree and master's in public health in 1985.^[1]

Career

After graduating, Johnson began her residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital and decided to specialize in cardiology. In 1990, she became the first woman and first African American ever to hold the position of chief medial resident at the hospital.^[1]

Johnson worked in the hospital's cardiac transplant unit and served as director of Quality Management Services before transferring to her current positions. As chief of the Division of Women's Health, she focuses on women's access to cardiology care and the quality of that care. This is especially important, as cardiovascular disease manifests differently in men and women. Johnson has also focused much of her work on educating and empowering African-American women, as these women are 50 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than white women.^[1]

On February 11, 2016, Wellesley college announced that Johnson would become the college's 14th president. She will become the first African-American to lead the school.^[2]

References