Dr. Janet Henrich, a national leader in women's health and director of the Women's Health Program at Yale, has been named the next master of Trumbull College. Dr. Henrich, who succeeds the Reverend Harry Adams, will begin her five-year term beginning July 1.
Dr. Henrich is also an associate professor of medicine and of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine. She developed the ambulatory education program for physicians-in-training in the department of internal medicine -- the first initiative to provide a comprehensive primary-care curriculum -- and in December of 1995 was named director of the Women's Health Program at Yale, a joint program of the School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Hospital. In 1996, the comprehensive, interdisciplinary academic program was designated as one of six National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In a letter to the Trumbull College community announcing the new master, President Richard C. Levin said Dr. Henrich's work "has been instrumental in guiding government agencies and professional organizations interested in developing academic programs in women's health, and she has influenced health-care policy and funding in this area." He noted that in collaboration with the U.S. Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health, the Health Resources and Service Administration and the Association of American Medical Colleges, Dr. Henrich designed "an important survey that assessed the extent to which women's health issues are incorporated in medical school curricula." The recommendations for a core curriculum on women's health that she developed with these agencies will be used as a national model. In addition, many of the recommendations she made as part of a background paper for the Council on Graduate Medical Education -- which was presented to Congress and the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services -- were adopted last year by the Association of Professors of Medicine of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
One of the aspects of her work at the Women's Health Program that she most enjoys, Dr. Henrich says, is teaching an undergraduate course with colleagues under the auspices of the Women's Studies Program. The course, "Women's Health," examines medical findings on such gender-specific diseases as breast cancer and eating disorders and explores the cultural context of studies on women's health. Among the topics discussed are reproduction, body image and the impact of violence against women.
Dr. Henrich edited the first section in "Nobel's Textbook of Primary Care Medicine," and she serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Women's Health. She has been commissioned by the American College of Physicians to develop its women's health section of "The Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program." She is a founding member of the National Academy of Women's Health Medical Education and is on the board of directors of the Society for the Advancement of Women's Health Research.
Two members of Dr. Henrich's family are also affiliated with Yale. Her husband, Victor Henrich, is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Applied Science, professor of physics and director of the division of physical sciences and engineering. Her son, Christopher, is a graduate student in psychology. The Henrichs' second son, Timothy, is studying in Japan on a Shansi Fellowship. Dr. and Professor Henrich will be joined in the Trumbull master's suite by their 15-year-old golden retriever named Amber.
In his announcement naming Dr. Henrich as master, President Levin thanked Reverend Adams and his wife, Manette, for "their openness, their kindness, their generosity of spirit and their humanity" during their 10 years in the master's house. "They have our enduring affection," he said of the couple. Reverend Adams will continue to teach at the Divinity School when he completes his second term as master.