Honorary Members
The Society has bestowed these individuals with an Honorary Membership due to their exceptional contributions either to the field of menopause or to the Society.
Thomas B Clarkson Jr, DVM — Awarded 2015
Dr. Clarkson was an internationally recognized professor at Wake Forest University whose groundbreaking research in the areas of atherosclerosis and women’s health were instrumental to the university’s rise to prominence in comparative medicine through studies of animal models for understanding human diseases. He received more than $60 million in research funding, and during his career, Dr. Clarkson received many significant awards, including election in 1986 as one of only nine veterinary members to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine. He held an Award of Merit for Distinguished Service from the American Heart Association. He was a longtime member of The Society, and his contributions included serving as a member of the Editorial Board for Menopause, a speaker at numerous Annual Meetings, and a member of many committees. He was the recipient of the Soy Research Award in 2001 and the Cardiovascular Research Award in 2003. He also presented the first Wulf H. Utian Endowed Lecture. He served two terms on the Board of Trustees and was instrumental in organizing the first Translational Science Symposium.
Sheryl Stark Sherman, PhD — Awarded 2014
Dr. Sherman spent most of her career at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institutes of Health. While at the NIA, she focused on women’s health issues and provided program leadership for the longest-running study on menopause ever done, the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Her contributions to the science of menopause through SWAN, the Penn Ovarian Study, and MsFLASH (Menopause Strategies: Finding Lasting Answers for Symptoms and Health) were invaluable. Results from these studies were frequently presented at The Society’s Annual Meetings and published in Menopause. We continue to translate the findings from these studies into clinical recommendations that are disseminated to The Society’s membership and to the public. Dr. Sherman was a collaborator in the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop (STRAW) in 2002 and in the update of STRAW 10 years later (STRAW+10). Dr. Sherman was a loyal member of The Society and attended many of The Society’s Annual Meetings.
Vivian W Pinn, MD — Awarded 2011
Dr. Pinn was awarded the first honorary membership in The Society’s history. She was the first permanent director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) at the National Institutes of Health, a position she held for 2 decades. She was committed to women’s health and the promotion of greater career opportunities for women in science and medicine. She had an illustrious career as a clinician, researcher, and healthcare policy leader. In 1982, at Howard University College of Medicine, she became the first African American woman to chair an academic pathology department in the United States. As ORWH director, she tracked and reported the percentage of women participants in medical research and noted the neglect of women’s health issues in healthcare policy making. She played a key role in putting these gender disparities—as well as healthcare disparities for racial and ethnic minorities—on the national agenda. She focused attention on the importance of sex-specific differences in disease development and in responses to treatment interventions. She also vigilantly tracked the state of women’s health research and led efforts to set research priorities. She effectively directed ORWH efforts toward the goal of increasing women’s ranks in the leadership of research and academic institutions.