When Beverly G. Coleman, MD, started her career in radiology in the early 1970s, ultrasound was still a curiosity. The machines were massive, occupying entire rooms, and the images they produced were fuzzy and ghostly. Expectant mothers were wheeled in for a glimpse of the mysterious shapes on the monitor. Few imagined that one day, that same technology — now portable enough to hold in your hand — would help redefine what was possible in medicine, illuminating the earliest and most fragile chapters of human life.
“The detail we can see now,” says Dr. Coleman, “is a million miles ahead of what we could see when I started in the field.”
Half a century later, Dr. Coleman is stepping away from her post as Director of Fetal Imaging at the Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). In that time, she hasn’t just witnessed the transformation of a field, she has helped to shape it, one meticulously examined image at a time.
Finding Her Calling
Radiology wasn’t where Dr. Coleman was expected to end up. At the time she was in medical school at Harvard, women were most often guided toward pediatrics or obstetrics. But she was drawn to the puzzle-solving side of imaging, to the way radiologists were called in when the diagnosis wasn’t obvious and others needed to know how best to proceed to most effectively manage their patients.
“Radiologists were the problem-solvers,” she recalls. “That challenge, to figure out what no one else could, that’s what drew me in.”
Her skill, and her quiet but commanding presence, carried her far. She rose to lead Penn Medicine’s abdominal imaging division, radiology’s largest, in a department that at the time was almost entirely male. By 1980, she had become a prominent figure in the American College of Radiology (ACR). Four decades later, she would shatter a century-old barrier as the organization’s first African American president. Peers, in admiration and awe, called her “a force to be reckoned with.”
A Partnership That Changed Everything
The story of Dr. Coleman’s next chapter — the one that would cement her as one of the foremost authorities in fetal imaging — begins in 1995. That year, pediatric surgeon N. Scott Adzick, MD, MMM, and the late Lori J. Howell, DNP, MS, RN, dared to imagine something audacious: An innovative program that could diagnose, understand, and even treat fetal conditions before birth. It was a vision as radical as it was risky.
Out of that vision grew the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at CHOP, only the second fetal treatment center in the world. This year, the center celebrates its 30th anniversary, marking three decades of pioneering care and innovation for more than 35,000 families from all 50 states and more than 70 countries who have come to Philadelphia in search of answers and hope.
Before formally joining the team, Dr. Coleman was often called on by Dr. Adzick to consult on complex cases. In 2014, she transitioned from her role at Penn to join CHOP full time. She became the center’s first Director of Fetal Imaging and, fittingly, the inaugural holder of the Beverly Gilbert Coleman Endowed Chair in Fetal Imaging. From that vantage point, she refined protocols, trained new talent, and pushed the boundaries of fetal medicine.
The Power of Precision
What makes Dr. Coleman’s work extraordinary isn’t just the technology. It’s how she uses it. Ultrasound, she explains, is both an art and a science.
“You can be incredibly specific with patients now,” she says. “We can look at the brain and not just say, ‘It looks OK.’ We can measure the corpus callosum, evaluate the cerebellum, and even assess the internal architecture of the tissue itself. It’s a whole new world.”
Each new level of precision, she says, translates to more accurate diagnoses and more informed decisions for families. Sometimes that means delivering devastating news. Other times, it means rewriting the story a family thought they knew.
“We’ve actually changed the diagnosis for a significant number of patients,” she says. “We give information that is devastating, yes, but we also give information that provides hope, that there’s something that can be done to fix this.”
At the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, every case is a team effort. Surgeons, geneticists, maternal-fetal medicine specialists and radiologists sit at the same table, challenging assumptions, asking hard questions, and working toward a cohesive diagnosis and plan.
“No one here works in a silo,” she says. “It’s never about ego. It’s about getting the best possible information for the family. We need to counsel patients within hours. You can’t waste time.”
The Human Element
For all its technical brilliance, Dr. Coleman’s work has always been about people. About the families who arrive at CHOP terrified, grieving or in shock.
“Every person who comes here, every family, has been told that something is wrong,” she says. “The moms are weeping, the dads are pacing. Some don’t want to see the screen at all. So you have to have psychological skills. You have to have interpretive skills and you must always have compassion.”
Families feel that care in every interaction. Many send back pictures and videos of healthy children — running, laughing, living full lives — to the team who helped them through the most difficult days of their lives.
“Those moments,” Dr. Coleman says, “mean everything.”
A Career of Firsts
Dr. Coleman’s impact has rippled far beyond Philadelphia. She has lectured on five continents. And she has trained a generation of radiologists who now carry her lessons into hospitals around the world.
Her groundbreaking work and leadership have been recognized with some of the profession’s highest honors, including gold medals from the ACR and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the American Association for Women Radiologists’ Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award.
But her legacy, she insists, is not measured in accolades. It lives in the culture she helped build at CHOP, one of curiosity, humility and relentless commitment to patients.
“People learning, people discovering,” she says, “and then putting their discoveries to work. That’s how you make progress.”
Looking Forward
As she steps into retirement, Dr. Coleman is reflective, but not nostalgic. She is proud of the path she carved, and proud, too, of what it means for her grandchildren who watched her accept the Marie Curie award.
“I think it’s really important because you have to show them that no matter what, they get to decide what they want to do in life,” she says.
She’s looking forward to wherever this next chapter leads, including time with her grandchildren and traveling with her husband. “He wants to see the pyramids in Egypt,” she laughs. But she leaves with deep gratitude for the work itself.
“I’m just proud that I had the opportunity to do this job,” she says. “I came up in an environment where race and gender were barriers. I worked hard to get here. And now, to be recognized internationally for something I love, that’s a gift. I’m very appreciative of the journey.”
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When Beverly G. Coleman, MD, started her career in radiology in the early 1970s, ultrasound was still a curiosity. The machines were massive, occupying entire rooms, and the images they produced were fuzzy and ghostly. Expectant mothers were wheeled in for a glimpse of the mysterious shapes on the monitor. Few imagined that one day, that same technology — now portable enough to hold in your hand — would help redefine what was possible in medicine, illuminating the earliest and most fragile chapters of human life.
“The detail we can see now,” says Dr. Coleman, “is a million miles ahead of what we could see when I started in the field.”
Half a century later, Dr. Coleman is stepping away from her post as Director of Fetal Imaging at the Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). In that time, she hasn’t just witnessed the transformation of a field, she has helped to shape it, one meticulously examined image at a time.
Finding Her Calling
Radiology wasn’t where Dr. Coleman was expected to end up. At the time she was in medical school at Harvard, women were most often guided toward pediatrics or obstetrics. But she was drawn to the puzzle-solving side of imaging, to the way radiologists were called in when the diagnosis wasn’t obvious and others needed to know how best to proceed to most effectively manage their patients.
“Radiologists were the problem-solvers,” she recalls. “That challenge, to figure out what no one else could, that’s what drew me in.”
Her skill, and her quiet but commanding presence, carried her far. She rose to lead Penn Medicine’s abdominal imaging division, radiology’s largest, in a department that at the time was almost entirely male. By 1980, she had become a prominent figure in the American College of Radiology (ACR). Four decades later, she would shatter a century-old barrier as the organization’s first African American president. Peers, in admiration and awe, called her “a force to be reckoned with.”
A Partnership That Changed Everything
The story of Dr. Coleman’s next chapter — the one that would cement her as one of the foremost authorities in fetal imaging — begins in 1995. That year, pediatric surgeon N. Scott Adzick, MD, MMM, and the late Lori J. Howell, DNP, MS, RN, dared to imagine something audacious: An innovative program that could diagnose, understand, and even treat fetal conditions before birth. It was a vision as radical as it was risky.
Out of that vision grew the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at CHOP, only the second fetal treatment center in the world. This year, the center celebrates its 30th anniversary, marking three decades of pioneering care and innovation for more than 35,000 families from all 50 states and more than 70 countries who have come to Philadelphia in search of answers and hope.
Before formally joining the team, Dr. Coleman was often called on by Dr. Adzick to consult on complex cases. In 2014, she transitioned from her role at Penn to join CHOP full time. She became the center’s first Director of Fetal Imaging and, fittingly, the inaugural holder of the Beverly Gilbert Coleman Endowed Chair in Fetal Imaging. From that vantage point, she refined protocols, trained new talent, and pushed the boundaries of fetal medicine.
The Power of Precision
What makes Dr. Coleman’s work extraordinary isn’t just the technology. It’s how she uses it. Ultrasound, she explains, is both an art and a science.
“You can be incredibly specific with patients now,” she says. “We can look at the brain and not just say, ‘It looks OK.’ We can measure the corpus callosum, evaluate the cerebellum, and even assess the internal architecture of the tissue itself. It’s a whole new world.”
Each new level of precision, she says, translates to more accurate diagnoses and more informed decisions for families. Sometimes that means delivering devastating news. Other times, it means rewriting the story a family thought they knew.
“We’ve actually changed the diagnosis for a significant number of patients,” she says. “We give information that is devastating, yes, but we also give information that provides hope, that there’s something that can be done to fix this.”
At the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, every case is a team effort. Surgeons, geneticists, maternal-fetal medicine specialists and radiologists sit at the same table, challenging assumptions, asking hard questions, and working toward a cohesive diagnosis and plan.
“No one here works in a silo,” she says. “It’s never about ego. It’s about getting the best possible information for the family. We need to counsel patients within hours. You can’t waste time.”
The Human Element
For all its technical brilliance, Dr. Coleman’s work has always been about people. About the families who arrive at CHOP terrified, grieving or in shock.
“Every person who comes here, every family, has been told that something is wrong,” she says. “The moms are weeping, the dads are pacing. Some don’t want to see the screen at all. So you have to have psychological skills. You have to have interpretive skills and you must always have compassion.”
Families feel that care in every interaction. Many send back pictures and videos of healthy children — running, laughing, living full lives — to the team who helped them through the most difficult days of their lives.
“Those moments,” Dr. Coleman says, “mean everything.”
A Career of Firsts
Dr. Coleman’s impact has rippled far beyond Philadelphia. She has lectured on five continents. And she has trained a generation of radiologists who now carry her lessons into hospitals around the world.
Her groundbreaking work and leadership have been recognized with some of the profession’s highest honors, including gold medals from the ACR and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the American Association for Women Radiologists’ Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award.
But her legacy, she insists, is not measured in accolades. It lives in the culture she helped build at CHOP, one of curiosity, humility and relentless commitment to patients.
“People learning, people discovering,” she says, “and then putting their discoveries to work. That’s how you make progress.”
Looking Forward
As she steps into retirement, Dr. Coleman is reflective, but not nostalgic. She is proud of the path she carved, and proud, too, of what it means for her grandchildren who watched her accept the Marie Curie award.
“I think it’s really important because you have to show them that no matter what, they get to decide what they want to do in life,” she says.
She’s looking forward to wherever this next chapter leads, including time with her grandchildren and traveling with her husband. “He wants to see the pyramids in Egypt,” she laughs. But she leaves with deep gratitude for the work itself.
“I’m just proud that I had the opportunity to do this job,” she says. “I came up in an environment where race and gender were barriers. I worked hard to get here. And now, to be recognized internationally for something I love, that’s a gift. I’m very appreciative of the journey.”
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