The Cancer Center Celebrates Women’s History Month
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Each March, National Women’s History Month is a time to recognize inspirational and groundbreaking women who have forged a path through history for their female successors.
Though the medical field has come a long way since Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell made history as the first woman in America to receive a medical degree, medicine largely remains a male-dominated field.
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Cancer Center invites you to meet a few members of our talented team — inspiring women sharing their history, their accomplishments and their insights on women in the medical field.
Rochelle Bagatell, MD
Pediatric Oncologist with expertise in solid tumors
Q: Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in medicine?
A: I majored in history as an undergrad and taught high school when I finished college, but I decided that in the long run the combination of science and art that medicine represents would be the best fit for me. Medicine really does give us the opportunity to help people, and it is the ultimate team sport.
Q: What do you love most about your job?
A: I love the challenge of constant change. There is always more to learn in this field, and there are always new and complex situations to think about with people who want to help figure things out.
Q: What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: I’m happiest professionally when teams are working well together — whether they are research-oriented teams or patient-care-oriented teams. I’m proud of the times that I’ve been able to bring teams together and get things done.
Q: How important has female mentorship been to your career?
A: I was fortunate to have a fantastic female mentor starting very early in my career, and to this day she is a wonderful source of advice, wisdom and friendship. She has been an amazing role model both professionally and personally.
Q: Although the gender gap has shrunk in the medical field, we still have more work to do. What obstacles do you feel female clinicians face and how can society promote increased female leadership in the field?
A: Our field is structured so that our careers have to be launched at the same time that demands in our personal lives are tremendous. Whether women have children or not, they still do a huge amount of work within families, and often the needs of families are greatest when women are gaining expertise clinically, establishing themselves in research careers, and/or taking on more responsibilities institutionally. There is a lot of pressure to get an astonishing amount done professionally just when we are needed most outside of work. Society can promote female leadership by addressing the many demands on women that compete with their professional demands, and also by considering the various definitions of, routes to, and timelines for professional success.
Q: What advice do you have for young women interested in pursuing a career in medicine?
A: So much is possible within this field. There are all kinds of ways to carve out a career in medicine that is a good fit for you. Find people in your life who inspire you inside of medicine and outside of it and enjoy the challenges and opportunities that come your way.
Jill Ginsberg, MD
Pediatric Oncologist and the Director of the Cancer Survivorship Program
Q: What do you love most about your job?
A: I love taking care of children. I especially love to hear about their lives outside of CHOP.
Q: What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: I am most proud of the work our team does in the area of fertility preservation. Our team recognized years ago how important fertility was to our cancer survivors. Over the years, we have worked to improve the chances that some of our survivors might one day be able to have their own biological children.
Q: Although the gender gap has shrunk in the medical field, we still have more work to do. What obstacles do you feel female clinicians face and how can society promote increased female leadership in the field?
A: I believe women are still not given the same opportunities to succeed in academic medicine. Women are sometimes overlooked when it comes to leadership positions. I also believe that there is still very little flexibility in academic medicine to account for different career trajectories of women.
Q: What advice do you have for young women interested in pursuing a career in medicine?
A: Do what you love. You need to make sure you pick an area of medicine that you are passionate about. AND always, always make time for your own family, even if that sometimes means turning down opportunities at work. Sometimes it might seem impossible to combine raising children with a career in medicine — but it can be done. It takes patience, ingenuity and a supportive partner (someone who likes to do the cooking is helpful ).
Julie Stern, MD
Pediatric Oncologist and the Director of Outreach Services with the Division of Oncology
Q: Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in medicine?
A: I wanted to be a pediatrician for as long as I can remember, I think before I started kindergarten! In high school, I read a book written by the mother of a teen with leukemia. He did not survive, but his mother’s memoir changed my life. During medical school, I was randomly placed on the oncology unit during my pediatrics rotation, and I knew I was in the place I wanted to spend the rest of my career.
Q: What do you love most about your job?
A: The kids! And their families, of course. It is such an honor to accompany our patients on their cancer journey. I’ve been so fortunate to stay in touch with many of my patients after their treatment ends, to hear about their graduations, weddings and babies. Watching my patients grow into amazing adults is the reward after all the hard work to get there.
Q: What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: I’m proud of the program I’ve helped to build, first in Allentown for five years and now in King of Prussia for the past 16-plus years. In addition to the clinical program, I started the outreach program in 2006 for the Division of Oncology. The success of my outreach work was eventually expanded throughout the CHOP enterprise, helping to improve the process for patients and referring physicians to access the care that CHOP provides.
Q: How important has female mentorship been to your career?
A: Mentorship has played a big role in my career. When I started at CHOP, Anna Meadows was the Chief of the Division of Oncology and Bev Lange, Audrey Evans and Nancy Bunin were in senior leadership. Considering that my medical school class was only 25% women, it was formative to come to a program with such a strong female presence.
Q: Although the gender gap has shrunk in the medical field, we still have more work to do. What obstacles do you feel female clinicians face and how can society promote increased female leadership in the field?
A: Yes, things have certainly improved, but the gender gap is real. The reality is that the physical demands of pregnancy and motherhood fall to women often around the same time as career demands are peaking. As a society, we need to find a way to allow for a real parental leave that allows parents to care for, and bond with, their babies while not penalizing clinicians for taking that time. Pay equity should be another priority, not only between the genders but also between the subfields in medicine.
Q: What advice do you have for young women interested in pursuing a career in medicine?
A: Go for it and follow your dreams. It’s important to have a good team in your corner, whether that is a life partner, parents, siblings or friends. Taking time for yourself to recharge is critical as well. Finally, know your worth and be strong advocating for what you need and deserve both in terms of the specifics of your career expectations as well as compensation. Medicine is a calling and for me — I cannot imagine doing anything else. There are so many sacrifices along the way — the long days, the endless nights, the time away from our own families to help heal others. My life is so much richer for having been part of my patients’ lives, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Sarah Tasian, MD
Pediatric Oncologist and the Chief of the Hematologic Malignancies Program
Q: Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in medicine?
A: My mother was a teacher and head of school, and all my summer jobs inevitably involved working with children (helping with the after-school program and summer camp, coaching the swim team, and my most glamorous job ever of selling Catholic school uniforms!). Medicine and particularly pediatric oncology were the perfect marriage of my love of science, a desire to help my community in a deeply meaningful way, and the pure joy of working with children and seeing the world through their honest lens (often with a healthy side of hilarity!).
Q: What do you love most about your job?
A: My job is never boring! I wear many hats in my roles as a clinician, laboratory scientist, clinical trialist, mentor, teacher, team member and leader. It is truly a career of life-long learning.
Q: What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: I am most proud of being “bilingual” in translational pediatric oncology with one foot firmly in the clinic and one foot firmly in the lab; developing a deep understanding of both domains has led to profound scientific and clinical synergies and, most importantly, has benefitted our patients and their families. This goal has taken a long time and a lot of persistence to accomplish, and I sincerely credit my mentors for their inspiration.
Q: How important has female mentorship been to your career?
A: Essential! I have been so fortunate to work with incredible female mentors throughout my medical and scientific training. These amazing women continue to be career and life mentors, trusted colleagues, and dear friends. They also energize me to be a dedicated and generous mentor for my own trainees, especially female physician-scientists.
Q: Although the gender gap has shrunk in the medical field, we still have more work to do. What obstacles do you feel female clinicians face and how can society promote increased female leadership in the field?
A: Women are often incredible multi-taskers! Many women in medicine work two full-time jobs, one caring for their patients and one caring for their family. We need to recognize more clearly the demands of work/life integration (it is often an imbalance) in promoting female clinicians’ success and career satisfaction, as well as more deliberately mentor women along their career trajectories to positions of achievement and effective leadership.
Q: What advice do you have for young women interested in pursuing a career in medicine?
A: Seek what inspires you and be open to new opportunities! I am perpetually amazed by the diverse possibilities in medicine and how one’s career can evolve over time, sometimes in very surprising and exciting ways.
