Influential Women in the Veterinary & Pharmaceutical Fields
All last month, we had male members of our leadership team share write-ups on influential women in the veterinary & pharmaceutical fields to celebrate and recognize #WomensHistoryMonth. Here's a glimpse of what they shared:
Kristin Peck, CEO of Zoetis (Shared by Bob Betz, SVP of Sales)
Kristin Peck has been in this role since the beginning of 2020.?Prior to becoming CEO, Ms. Peck was executive vice president and group president, U.S. Operations, Business Development and Strategy at Zoetis.?Ms. Peck helped usher Zoetis through its Initial Public Offering in 2013 and has been a driving force of change in many roles at the company.
Ms. Peck is?a member of the Business Roundtable and a Board member of Catalyst, a global non-profit that helps companies around the world accelerate women into leadership. In addition, she serves on the Advisory Board for the Deming Center for Quality, Productivity and Competitiveness at Columbia Business School. Named a Fortune 2020 Businessperson of the Year, Ms. Peck has been recognized for her leadership and Zoetis’ strong performance, including its resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.?Ms. Peck holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Dr. Patricia O’Connor (Shared by Austin Barsophy, VP of Finance & Analytics)
Dr. Patricia O'Connor was the first full-time woman zoo veterinarian in the US and made history when she became staff veterinarian of the Staten Island Zoo in 1942. This was at a time when less than 1% of all veterinarian graduates were women! She also helped found several organizations, including the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians (AAZV). Dr. O'Connor became the AAZV's first president from 1946 to 1957, and took up the presidency again in 1965. Her brainchild grew into an internationally recognized organization. Among her many accomplishments was the authorship of the 465-page volume, A Bibliography of References to Diseases of Wild Mammals and Birds, which was published in 1955. Dr. O'Connor died on 8 July (2003) at the age of 88.
Dr. Jane Hinton (Shared by Tom MacClean, Director of Finance)
Dr. Jane Hinton was the first black woman to become a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in the US (along with Dr. Alfreda Webb). She was also a highly-talented scientific researcher known for developing the Mueller-Hinton agar, which is still used today to test if bacteria is resistant to antibiotics.
Hinton graduated from Simmons College in 1939 and became a research assistant at Harvard University. It was at Harvard where she made the breakthrough discovery of the Mueller-Hinton agar. When the U.S. entered World War II, Hinton joined the efforts -- moving to Arizona where she worked as a medical technician for the U.S. government researching the impact of certain diseases on US servicemen. After the war ended, she decided to pursue a degree in veterinary medicine and enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated in 1949 as one of the first two black women to earn a DVM. With her degree in hand, she returned to her hometown and became a small animal vet until 1955. Finally, she became an inspector for the Department of Agriculture in Framingham, MA helping respond to disease outbreaks in livestock. Hinton retired at 41 with a significant contributions to multiple fields and spent her time caring for her many personal pets.
Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi (Shared by Chris O’Keefe, VP of Operations)
Mary Putnam Jacobi, who in 1863 graduated from the New York College of Pharmacy, was the first woman to graduate from a United States school of pharmacy. Mary was also first woman to study medicine at the University of Paris, where she graduated with a medical degree in 1871. Dr. Jacobi was known for rigorous scientific research, disparaging anecdotal evidence and traditional approaches of the day. In 1876, she wrote, “The Question of Rest for Women during Menstruation,” which was a response to an earlier published book claiming that any physical or mental exertion during menstruation could lead to women becoming infertile. Her scientific rebuttal of the popular idea that menstruation made women unsuited to education was also influential in the suffragist movement.
A true scientist to the end, when diagnosed with a brain tumor, she meticulously documented her symptoms and published a paper on the subject titled “Descriptions of the Early Symptoms of the Meningeal Tumor Compressing the Cerebellum. From Which the Writer Died. Written by Herself”. She died in New York City in 1906. Jacobi is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.
Dr. Sophia Yin (Shared by Rob Pfleging, Pharmacist-in-Charge, NY)
As Mixlab has grown, some of our most frequent prescribers have been animal behaviorists. This made me ask myself, where did this all start? While Dr. Sophia Yin may not have been the first veterinarian to dabble in animal psychology, she sure did blaze a trail into challenging the status quo. After graduating from vet school at UC Davis in California, Dr. Yin noticed that far more pets were being euthanized due to behavioral problems than they were for medical complications. This inspired her to head back to school to get a Master’s in Animal Science studying animal behavior. Behavior modification became her passion and life’s calling. She was recognized as an expert trainer and pushed strongly for the use of positive reinforcement in pets. Dr. Yin created many YouTube videos for pet parents and fellow vets. She also appeared on the Animal Planet and gave countless seminars. Some of her published works include:
Learn more about Dr. Sophia Yin and her very own invention, the Treat & Train!
Tu Youyou (Shared by Kory Muto, Sr. Director of Quality & Compliance)
Chemist Tu Youyou's story combines the value of traditional Chinese medicine, infectious disease, an enduring will, and most importantly, a selfless passion to help people. At age 16, she contracted tuberculosis, which motivated her to pursue studies in medicine and help others suffering from diseases. After high school she was accepted into the Department of Pharmacy at the now Beijing Medical College. Her focus in pharmacognosy allowed her to develop advanced knowledge on botanical medicine and application of western processes to Chinese medicine.
In 1969 she was given a unique, but critical opportunity to find a treatment for malaria that was plaguing South East Asia. This project had a critical timeline and Youyou made extreme personal sacrifices, being away from her husband and two young children, to complete the project. After many failed attempts to find a treatment, Youyou dove deep into ancient Chinese medical texts and was able to develop an idea for an extraction process of a compound found in the herb, Qinghao. Youyou volunteered to take the extracts herself (with no side-effects noted) and ultimately allowed for the study’s timely completion, thereby expediting the use in malaria infected patients. She is most notably known for her discovery of artemisinin, the compound used to treat malaria that has saved millions of lives. In 2015 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.
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Dr. Elinor McGrath, DVM (Shared by Adam Landsman, National Sales Director)
When it comes to women veterinarians, Dr. Elinor McGrath, DVM, was the O.G. A true icon, she’s widely considered America’s first female veterinarian.
Dr. McGrath’s love of animals inspired her to take on the male-dominated veterinary field. She became the first woman admitted to Chicago Veterinary College in 1907—the first of many barriers she’d break down to achieve her dream. Dr. McGrath prevailed, graduating in 1910, a decade before U.S. women were granted the right to vote.
Building a veterinary practice around pets was highly unusual back then and she was among the best in the business. She ran a companion animal practice in Chicago for decades (37 years!), and became known for animal-friendly practices like decorating a Christmas tree with pet presents during the holidays. She also established the city’s first pet cemetery, driven by her understanding of the strong bond between people and their pets.
Julia Pearl Hughes (Shared by Logan Grooms, Head of Care)
Julia Pearl Hughes was a pharmacist, entrepreneur, and business executive who broke through race and gender barriers of the late 1800s and early 1900s as a social, political, and professional pioneer for women and people of color. As the first African-American woman to open her own pharmacy, Hughes created a foundation of opportunity for other people with similar backgrounds and experiences.
As a hairdresser, she noticed her clients did not have access to hair and personal care products that met their needs, Hughes started the Columbia Chemical Company which created "Hair-Vim", a hair preparation product she marketed toward African American women. After one year, the Columbia Chemical Company failed, leaving Hughes with only $5 in her pocket. Not wanting to give up, Hughes moved to Washington, D.C. where she established the “Hair Care-Vim Chemical Company”, a much more successful version of her previous venture. She operated it out of her stepmother’s home so she could invest her profits more into market growth rather than company operations. In 1919, Hughes moved to a five story brownstone in Harlem where she and her company resided until she passed away in 1950.
Elizabeth Gooking Greenleaf (Shared by Kevin Green, Director of Product)
Elizabeth was born in 1681 in Cambridge, MA. She first started working with medicine by helping fill and prepare meds for her husband’s medical practice. In 1727, at the age of 46, she moved to Boston and opened her own apothecary shop, becoming the first women pharmacist in the United States (Thirteen Colonies). Other than running her own business and competing with 32 other apothecaries throughout New England at the time, who were all men, she had 13 children! She’s widely recognized as the “Mother of Pharmacy”, trailblazing a new profession for women. Since that time, Elizabeth's influence on women can be seen throughout the pharmacy industry. The American Pharmacist Association was founded in 1852, and has had 7 women serve as the president. As of 2020, 59.9% of pharmacists in the US are women! When Mother’s Day rolls around in May, don’t forget to celebrate the Mother of Pharmacy, Elizabeth Gooking Greenleaf!
Mary Munson Runge (Shared by Cliff Amend, Pharmacist-in-Charge, LA)
Mary was born on July 25, 1928 in Donaldsonville, Louisiana.?Her father, a Physician who owned the town’s first pharmacy and provided medications to those who could not afford them, inspired her to pursue pharmacy. Mary graduated from Xavier University in 1948 and was one of few women to be practicing pharmacy.?In 1971 she worked at a community pharmacy in Oakland, California where she provided medications to the African American community who could not afford them.
As a pioneer for women in pharmacy, Runge became the first female and African American president of the American Pharmacist Association. She also actively supported pharmacy in her state, serving on the California State Board of Pharmacy and as president of the California Pharmacists Association.?Mary received extensive recognition for her political activities and leadership roles, including honorary doctor of pharmacy degrees, as well as federal appointments on the Institute of Medicine Pharmacy Advisory Panel, the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Prescription Drug Payment Review Commission. A few of Mary’s many achievements include recipient of the 1996 APhA Hugo H Schaefer Award, honorary Doctor of Science degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and honorary Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Ohio Northern University. Mary served as preceptor-Intern advisor for the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California from 1972-1975 where she happened to have an impact on one of my Preceptors and Mentors who Graduated from UOP in 1977.?
Cora Dow (Shared by Fred Dijols, Chief Executive Officer)
Cora Dow was born in NJ in 1868. She became the leading female pharmacist of her time, with eleven stores under her name when she died in 1915. Cora graduated from the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy and later took over her father's drug store when he died. She also bought an ice cream factory and produced her own brand of ice cream because she did not think the kind sold in her store was good enough. She paid women the same as men, and furnished her stores so that women would be comfortable there. She sold products at below the normal retail price, causing some manufacturers to refuse to sell to her, but she challenged their pricing practices in court and won. She was also interested in animals, and campaigned nationally for the idea that horses should have a two-week annual vacation (!). She sold her business to an investment group in 1915 due to poor health, and died later that year.
Dr. Kathy Wright (Shared by Dima Likhten, Sr. Staff Engineer)
Kathy Wright, DVM, DACVIM, is a board-certified veterinary cardiologist who graduated from Michigan State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. She is one of the few vets in both the US and Canada who is both board-certified in Internal Medicine as well as Cardiology. She is both a contributing author of several veterinary textbooks and a reviewer for the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Journal of Veterinary Cardiology, and the Australian Veterinary Journal.
What is amazing is that she has innovated on the radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) treatment, which is an adaptation from a human treatment, with a 95% success rate curing dogs with a rare but life-threatening arrhythmia caused by atrioventricular accessory pathways (one of the most common causes of rapid heart rhythms in young dogs, most common in Labradors).
It's only been about 50 years since women were legally granted equal rights to education with the establishment of Title IX in 1972. That makes it even more incredible to see the influences these women (and more) have made within the industry! Thank you to everyone on our Mixlab team who took the time to research and share these incredible women with us. And thank you to all the talented and strong women out there who continue to push the veterinary and pharmaceutical industries forward.