Women's health pioneer receives inaugural Linda Joy Pollin Heart Health Leadership Award

Women's health pioneer Molly Carnes, MD, MS, has been awarded the inaugural Linda Joy Pollin Heart Health Leadership Award from the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center in the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.

In conjunction with the Linda Joy Pollin Women's Heart Health Program, the Linda Joy Pollin Women's Heart Health Leadership Award was created to recognize physicians and scientists who have had a profound impact on women and their heart health.

"Dr. Carnes exemplifies the mission of the Linda Joy Pollin Women's Hearth Health Program and the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center," said Noel Bairey Merz, MD, director of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center. "Not only has Dr. Carnes been influential in the science of internal medicine and geriatrics, but she also has devoted herself to helping other women scientists achieve their goals."

Carnes was a college dropout and a waitress in the early 1970s when she decided to go to medical school. Today, she is a professor In the Departments of Medicine (Geriatrics), Psychiatry and Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After earning her Bachelor's of Science from the University of Michigan, Carnes earned her medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She completed an internal medicine residency and a geriatrics fellowship at the University of Wisconsin where she also received a Master's of Science degree in Epidemiology.

Throughout her career, Carnes has been a strong advocate for women's health and for advancing the progress of women in medical academia. A professor in the departments of medicine, psychiatry and Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, she directs the Center for Women's Health Research, the Advanced Fellowship in Women's Health, and the Women Veterans Health Program.

In 2002, Carnes co-founded the Women In Science & Engineering Leadership Institute with an ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award from the National Science Foundation. The Institute focuses on developing, studying, and implementing evidence-based strategies to increase the participation and advancement of women faculty in academic science, medicine, and engineering.

The Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center and its Linda Joy Pollin Women's Heart Health program seeks to honor those who share its vision for better cardiac care for women. A champion for women's health, Irene Pollin turned overwhelming personal loss into activism that is helping improve the detection and treatment of women's heart disease. In 2013, Mrs. Pollin made a transformational $10 million gift to create the Linda Joy Pollin Women's Heart Health Program at the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center in the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, which she named after her late daughter, Linda Joy, who was born with a heart defect and died at age 16.

In an effort to better protect women from heart disease, Mrs. Pollin, a widely respected public health advocate, founded Sister to Sister in 1999. The nonprofit is the nation's first organization dedicated to women's heart disease prevention and the largest provider of free heart health evaluations for women. A psychotherapist with a Master of Social Work degree from Catholic University and an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Howard University, Mrs. Pollin is the author of two books, Medical Crisis Counseling and Taking Charge: Overcoming the Challenges of Long-Term Illness, and has written many articles on coping with chronic illness.