The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today announced its selection of Lynne Holden, M.D., co-founder and president of Mentoring in Medicine in New York City, to receive a Community Health Leaders Award. Holden is being honored for her work to reduce health disparities by creating a more diverse health care workforce. She is one of 10 extraordinary Americans who will receive the RWJF honor for 2009 at a ceremony this evening at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Holden has established an all-volunteer organization that encourages and nurtures disadvantaged students from Harlem and the South Bronx in New York City to enter the health professions. Reaching students as young as the first grade, Mentoring in Medicine (www.medicalmentor.org) exposes students to a wide range of health professions and provides mentoring, academic enrichment and leadership development to set them on the path toward health careers. Holden has created a movement that motivates and supports nearly 6,000 students and engages nearly 500 health care professional volunteers.
"Dr. Holden inspires young people who might never have considered a career in health care," said Janice Ford Griffin, national program director for the award. "She has also actively engaged them as health ambassadors who regularly disseminate information to improve the health of their communities." Holden's health ambassadors distributed crucial information in Harlem and the Bronx when the H1N1 flu strain, better known as the swine flu, first broke in New York City. Her health ambassadors also have worked to educate their communities about the dangers of smoking and how to prevent heart disease through the American Heart Association's "Go Red for Women" campaign.