UPMC’s Jeanette E. South-Paul, MD, Receives Humanitarian Award From Local Aid Organization

Dr. Jeanette E. South-Paul, Medical Director of the Community Health Services Division of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has received the Dr. Wangari Maathai Humanitarian Award from Workforce Development Global Alliance (WDGA), a Pittsburgh-based organization that helps disadvantaged youth in the United States and Africa.

Dr. Jeanette E. South-Paul

For her "lifetime of visionary leadership and steadfast devotion to social causes on both the local and global sphere," Dr. South-Paul was presented with the award by Mark A. Nordenberg, Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, at WDGA’s 7th Annual 2Steps2Work Benefit Banquet on Sept. 20, 2012 at the LeMont Restaurant.

As the first woman and the first African-American to serve as permanent chair of a department at the Pitt School of Medicine, and one of a small number of African-American chairs in medical schools nationwide, Dr. South-Paul is widely recognized for her research on the biological, social and behavioral factors associated with women’s health.

Beyond her family medicine interests, Dr. South-Paul also has an interest in socio-cultural issues in health care and health care in special populations. She is a widely recognized speaker and author on cultural competence in medical education; the impact of race, ethnicity and culture on health; cultural diversity and academic medicine; and the development of minority faculty.

Her research topics include premenstrual syndrome; treatment strategies for osteoporosis; exercise and aerobic capacity during pregnancy; infant nutrition; and exercise-dependent physiologic function in obesity.

She was recently honored in a special National Library of Medicine traveling exhibition, “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians.”

An active duty colonel in the U.S Army, Dr. South-Paul came to the University of Pittsburgh from the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Md. where she served as chair of the department of family medicine, vice president of minority affairs and president of the Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Dr. South-Paul is a former chair of the minority affairs section of the Association of American Medical Colleges. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice and a fellow of the American Academy of Physicians.

WDGA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote economic self-sufficiency through peace and employability for disadvantaged youth while inspiring hope from school to work one child at a time. For more information about WDGA, go to www.2steps2work.org.