Dr. Hannah Valantine Paves the Way in Medicine & in University Leadership

Dr. Hannah Valantine is an undeniable force for change for women and BIPOC in medicine. As a physician scientist at Stanford University, she has also paved the way for women in university leadership. In the lab, her groundbreaking work on procedures for heart transplant patients has the potential to save lives. Dr. Valantine joins hosts Dr. Andrea Goeglein and Kristi Atwater on this week’s episode of the Hey Boss Lady! podcast. 

Hailing from The Gambia, West Africa, Dr. Hannah Valantine moved to London and obtained her M.B.B.S. degree from London University and then Doctor of Medicine from London University in 1978. After relocating to the United States in the late 1980s, Valentine was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine, rising to full Professor of Medicine in 2000, and becoming the inaugural Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Leadership, in 2004. She pursued a data-driven transformative approach to this work, receiving the NIH director’s pathfinder award. 

In 2014, Dr. Francis Collins, The National Institutes of Health director, recruited Dr. Valantine as the inaugural NIH Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce diversity, and as a tenured investigator in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s intramural research program where she established the laboratory of transplantation genomics. Her work has been unmatched in terms of expanding recruitment and the retention of the brightest minds in medicine that transcend race, gender, and socioeconomic status. 

Dr. Valantine also established the Distinguished Scholars Program which had a positive impact on the diversity of tenure-track investigators at NIH. Under her leadership, a significant increase in women as tenure-track and tenured principal investigators was seen. In addition to the increase in the representation of women in this program, there was a distinguishable increase in representation of women within NIH leadership positions. 

“I think the sheer numbers of representation of women in leadership positions is getting better. And from what we know about women in leadership positions that will spill down to lower levels, “ says Dr. Valentine. “And that will make this transformation of the culture that we want to take shape, more likely to occur. When we have these women in the leadership positions.”

Dr. Valantine is a nationally recognized pioneer in her field, with over 200 peer-reviewed publications, patents, and sustained NIH funding. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020 for both her pioneering research in organ transplantation and workforce diversity. She continues to be a trailblazer in the world of medicine and paves the way for a more diverse field that is inclusive of women and BIPOC. 

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