page_title: Vivian Pinn
section_title: Leaving academic medicine
hierarchical_section_title: Vivian Pinn / Leaving academic medicine
caption_attribution_description: English: Dr Vivian Pinn (left) and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, Bethesda MD, U.S.A.
context_page_description: Vivian Winona Pinn is an American physician, scientist, and pathologist known for her advocacy of women's health issues and concerns, particularly for ensuring that federally funded medical studies include female patients, and well as encouraging women to follow medical and scientific careers. Before her retirement in 2011, she had served as associate director for research on women's health at the National Institutes of Health, and had directed NIH's Office of Research on Women's Health. Pinn also previously taught at Harvard University and Tufts University in Massachusetts, as well as Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C. Since retiring from NIH, Pinn has continued working as a senior scientist emerita at NIH's Fogarty International Center.
context_section_description: In 1991, Pinn was appointed as first director of the new Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) at NIH and first permanent NIH associate director of research on women's health. The ORWH was established in September 1990 to strengthen and enhance NIH's efforts to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of illnesses in women, and to enhance research related to diseases and conditions that affect women. The office helps establish NIH goals and policies for women's health issues and assures that all appropriate clinical trials include the participation of women.
  In her 20 years as ORWH director, Pinn employed her position as a federal policymaker to raise awareness of women's health issues and underrepresentation in science and medicine worldwide, across educational, political and cultural communities.
  At NIH in 1998, Pinn briefed Sarah, Duchess of York, on medical research topics and major health messages regarding women. Information was shared on the Women's Health Initiative, obesity, breast cancer, and osteoporosis.
  In a keynote at the Penn-International Council of Women's Health Issues (ICOWHI) conference in Philadelphia in 2010, Pinn addressed the myriad health issues presented for women and children by global urbanization, as an increasing number of people worldwide move to live in city environments. She said as more people migrate to the world's cities, local governments are often outpaced to provide adequate systems for housing, sanitation, electricity, and water for citizens. Persistent health problems result.
  In 2011, Pinn led a group of NIH staffers in a meeting with actress Geena Davis to discuss how girls and women are perceived based on their roles in children's films, television shows, and video games. During the hour-long session, participants talked about strategies for balancing gender portrayals and how everyone's overall health might be improved as a result.
caption: In 1998, Pinn briefed Sarah, Duchess of York, on medical research topics regarding women
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