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Physician who helped gain passage of child-rearing leave in Calif. to speak

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — SUNY Upstate Medical University has selected Diane Wara, M.D., a professor at the University of California at San Francisco who is recognized for her commitment to improving the quality of life for women in academic medicine, will present the Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., Day Lecture, "Women in Academic Medicine—Past, Present, Future" Feb. 21, at noon in the Ninth Floor Auditorium in Weiskotten Hall, 766 Irving Ave., Syracuse. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Wara is professor of pediatrics and chief of the Division of Pediatric Immunology/Rheumatology at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). As past chair and a long-term member of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on the Status of Women at UCSF, Wara guided the passage of a number of faculty changes, including a statewide University of California policy on child-bearing/child-rearing leave.

She is an expert on abnormalities of the immune system in children, has a primary interest in AIDS and has published extensively in these areas. She is immediate past chair of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee for the National Institutes of Health and a member of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. She has received numerous honors including election to the Institute of Medicine.

The Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., Day Lecture honors the first woman to graduate from a medical school and a pioneer in educating women in medicine. Blackwell graduated in 1849 from what is now SUNY Upstate Medical University.

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