Items

• Interview: Davis, Michellene, 2017

  Michellene Davis, Esq. is the President and CEO of National Medical Fellowships and former Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Barnabas Health. Davis is an Honors graduate of Seton Hall University and holds a Juris Doctorate from Seton Hall School of Law. She also received an Executive Education Certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility from the Harvard Business School and a Wharton Executive Education Certificate in Social Impact Strategy. Michellene Davis began her legal career as a trial litigator. She also served as Chief Policy Counsel to a former New Jersey Governor, where she was the first African American to serve in this position. Davis was the first African American and only the second women to serve as Acting New Jersey State Treasurer. Ms. Davis was the youngest person in state history to serve as Executive Director of the New Jersey Lottery and served as a senior policy advisor in the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. While Acting State Treasurer of New Jersey, she founded the New Jersey Department of the Treasury's Office of Supplier Diversity and Division of Minority and Women-Owned Businesses. At Rutgers Davis served on the Institute for Women's Leadership's advisory board. In this interview Ms. Davis describes her childhood growing up in Camden, New Jersey, as well as the impact her father had on her life. She speaks about her transitions between the different professions she has had, her experiences as a woman leader, and the self doubt she has faced in various professions.
• Interview: Diallo, Dazon Dixon, 2013

  Dázon Dixon Diallo is a recognized visionary and advocate in the struggle for human rights, sexual and reproductive justice, especially in the fight against HIV, gender-based violence, and womxn's economic justice. Dázon is the Founder and President of SisterLove, and she is a Co-Founder and Principal in the Public Affairs & Communications firm, 14th Strategies. She is a proud member of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda Partnership, where she advocates for sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice in public health and prevention policies and programs. She is a member of several bodies of influence including the Women-At-Risk Subcommittee and the Scientific Advisory Group of the HIV Prevention Trials Network, UNFPA Global Advisory Council, and a founding member of SisterSong Reproductive Justice Collective. Diallo serves on the IAPAC-Lancet HIV Commission on the Future of Urban HIV Response. She is the creator and convener of the Prevention Options for Womxn Advocacy & Research (POWAR) Partnership and WomxnNOW! Institute for SRHRJ for Girls & Womxn of African Descent worldwide. Dr.Diallo holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (C’97) and both a bachelor’s degree and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Spelman College (C’86, C'2012). At Rutgers University Dr. Diallo served as the Blanche, Edith, and Irving Laurie Chair in Women’s Studies at Douglass Residential College. In this interview, Dr. Diallo speaks about her childhood in Georgia including the role models that helped shape her life. She also speaks about her college and career experiences, starting her nonprofit SisterLove, and the lack of diverse narratives that need to be discussed in the conversations surrounding HIV/AIDS.
• Interview: Edwards, Lena Frances, 1982

  Lena Frances Edwards, M.D., (1900-1986) was an African American obstetrician and gynecologist who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her service in 1964. Dr. Edwards graduated from Howard University College of Medicine in 1924. For most of her 59 years of professional life, she practiced medicine in Jersey City, New Jersey, both in private practice and on the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital staff. During her years in Jersey City, Dr. Edwards started a chapter of College Women National, the Jersey City College Women, an organization that raised money to give tuition to women who wanted to earn an education. Dr. Edwards taught at Howard University from 1954 to 1960, following in the footsteps of her father who taught at Howard University School of Dentistry. After her time at Howard, she began an endowment scholarship fund for Black women from poor backgrounds. Dr. Edwards was interviewed as part of the Medical History Society of New Jersey-Oral History Program's project "The Health Professions in New Jersey During the Great Depression, 1929-1939." The interview was conducted on December 7, 1982, at the Jewish Hospital, Jersey City, by Linda Holmes, who was a professor at UMDNJ-School of Health-Related Professions. The interview focuses on Dr. Edwards' general and obstetric practice during the 1920s and 1930s largely centered on the African American, immigrant, and blue-collar populations. The conversation also addresses her philanthropic efforts throughout her life. In addition to this oral history interview housed at Rutgers, researchers interested in Dr. Edwards's life and work in New Jersey are also encouraged to consult the oral history recordings and transcripts on file at Harvard University's Schlesinger Library, where Dr. Edwards was interviewed in 1977 as part of the Black Women Oral History Project. The Schlesinger Library has digitized the transcripts and audio recordings from that project, and they can be found on the library's website. Additionally, a biographical book about Dr. Edwards was published in 1979, titled Medicine, Motherhood and Mercy: The Story of a Black Woman Doctor, written by Sister M. Anthony Scally.