Bernadine Healy - Early Years & Family

Early Years & Family

Born in New York City to Michael Healy and Violet McGrath, both deceased, Bernadine Patricia Healy was one of four daughters raised in Long Island City, Queens, New York. Healy's parents stressed the importance of education. She was the top student of her high school class at Hunter College High School.

She attended Vassar College on a full scholarship and graduated summa cum laude in 1965 with a major in chemistry and a minor in philosophy. She went on to Harvard Medical School, also on full scholarship, and was one of only ten women out of 120 students in her class. After graduating cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1970, she completed her internship and residency in cardiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Hospital. After finishing her post-doctoral training, she became the first woman to join its full-time faculty in cardiology, and rose quickly to the rank of professor of medicine.

For eight years she headed the coronary care unit at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. At the medical school she served as assistant dean for post-doctoral programs and faculty development. During that time she organized a nationally covered Mary Elizabeth Garrett symposium on women in medicine which examined the opportunities and hurdles faced by women physicians roughly 90 years after the founding of the medical school in 1893, and at the same time honored Ms. Garrett, the Victorian socialite and philanthropist who made sure Johns Hopkins School of Medicine opened its admissions to women (the medical school opened its doors on October, 1893; and three of the eighteen original candidates for the M.D. degree were women) and ultimately admitted women and men precisely on the same terms. Template:A History of the University founded by Johns Hopkins, by John C. French, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1946 )