Another Perspective: An Oral History Project of Women of Color in Medicine

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Identifier: US-NNCORMA-RGPPM-010

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Scope and Contents

Another Perspective: An Oral History Project of Women of Color in Medicine was coordinated by Pauline Flaum-Dunoyer, MD during her time as a medical student at Weill Cornell Medical College. The collection contains thirteen interviews conducted with women of color in medical and leadership roles at Weill Cornell Medicine. With the exception of Carol Storey-Johnson, MD, who was interviewed in person by Flaum-Dunoyer in the Medical Center Archives of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, all interviews were conducted remotely over Zoom, a videoconferencing technology. All interview audio files (both remote and in person) were captured as digital audio recordings using Zoom. The duration of each oral history is typically between 1 and 2.5 hours.

The interviewees discuss their backgrounds, education, and careers with Flaum-Dunoyer. Among other topics, some interviewees focus on their experiences as women of color in medicine, recount the discrimination and microaggressions they faced, discuss how they managed challenges and difficulties in their careers, and note their reasons for pursuing a life in medicine.

The collection also includes interview transcripts created in 2024 by Echo Labs, as well as a final project overview created by Flaum-Dunoyer in 2020, which outlines her goals and impetus for starting the project. The folder with Storey-Johnson’s oral history also includes preliminary questions and a preliminary project summary drafted by Flaum-Dunoyer in 2019 during the first phase of the project, and photographs of Flaum-Dunoyer and Storey-Johnson taken during their interview in the Medical Center Archives on November 19, 2019.

Dates

2019-2023

Creator

Flaum-Dunoyer, Pauline, MD (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The copyright holder of this collection is Weill Cornell Medicine. Materials from this collection cannot be reproduced outside the guidelines of United States Fair Use (17 U.S.C., Section 107) without the advance permission of the Medical Center Archives of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine. In the event that anything from the collection become a source for publication, a credit line indicating the Medical Center Archives of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine is required.

Biographical / Historical

Pauline Flaum-Dunoyer, MD was a medical student at Weill Cornell Medical College between 2018-2023. Flaum-Dunoyer attended a lecture on the history of medicine in 2019 and noticed that the contributions of women and people of color were underrepresented or missing.

Soon after the lecture, Flaum-Dunoyer connected with Nicole Milano (Head, Medical Center Archives of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine), who was working on efforts to expand representation in the archival collections. Together, they decided that Flaum-Dunoyer would conduct an oral history interview with Carol Storey-Johnson, MD, a professor of medicine and senior associate dean of education who had just retired after 45 years at Weill Cornell Medicine. Flaum-Dunoyer interviewed Storey-Johnson in the Medical Center Archives in November 2019 with the goal of providing context for her career and preserving it for future research. According to Flaum-Dunoyer at the time:

As a woman of color studying at Weill Cornell Medical College, my perspective of our community is seen through a lens shared by only a small minority of its members. Throughout my first year, some of my experiences, however well-known to those of us who have lived and grown in predominantly white spaces, have made me acutely aware of the sparse representation of men and women of color at this renowned institution. So to learn about Dr. Storey-Johnson’s story here brought me some confidence and joy. She and I have both made the decision to make Cornell our home. Folder 12; RGPPM-010, Another Perspective: An Oral History Project of Women of Color in Medicine, 2019-2023 (Medical Center Archives of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY).

The COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest of 2020 following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Elijah McClain prompted Flaum-Dunoyer to expand the scope of the project with the Medical Center Archives, supported by Geraldine McGinty, MD (E. Darracott Vaughan, Jr., M.D. Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs) and Nicole Milano. Between 2021 and 2023 Flaum-Dunoyer conducted remote oral history interviews with an additional twelve women of color affiliated with Weill Cornell Medicine. The project concluded in 2023.

Flaum-Dunoyer was the recipient of the 2021 Roberts Lifestyle and Diversity Scholars Award, 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Conquer Cancer Award, and 2022 Diversity Center of Excellence Award. She completed a research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) between her third and fourth years of medical school, where she pioneered a prospective study on the impact of quality-of-life from dermatologic side effects of cancer treatments, where she amended the Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol to include, as a first for the dermatology department, Spanish-speaking patients in quality-of-life clinical research at the Ralph Lauren Center within MSKCC. Flaum-Dunoyer also served as a Weill Cornell Medical Student Representative for the Heberden Society, a history of medicine lecture series between 2020-2023. In 2022, she received a medical observership grant from the Skin of Color Society, which promotes awareness of skin of color in the field of dermatology. Throughout her time at Weill Cornell Medical College, she volunteered with several organizations providing mentorship to students of color pursing a medical career. Flaum-Dunoyer graduated with her MD in 2023 with honors in research and began a transitional year internship in Ann Arbor, Michigan before moving to Rochester, NY for a residency in dermatology.

Bibliography “13 Female Physicians Cemented into Weill Cornell Medicine History Thanks to Special Archive Project.” WCM Newsroom, April 24, 2023. https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2023/04/13-female-physicians-cemented-into-weill-cornell-medicine-history-thanks-to-special.

“Observership Experiences.” Skin of Color Society, April 17, 2023. https://skinofcolorsociety.org/observership-grant-recipients/.

“Project Summary” by Pauline Flaum-Dunoyer, 2019, Folder 12, RGPPM-010, Another Perspective: An Oral History Project of Women of Color in Medicine, 2019-2023 (Medical Center Archives of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY).

Extent

1.14 gigabytes. (38 files)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Arrangement

With the exception of the final project overview, all files are organized alphabetically into folders by interviewee last name. All digital files were renamed by archives staff upon receipt from Pauline Flaum-Dunoyer or EchoLabs.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The oral histories, preliminary questions, preliminary project summary, and final project overview were donated to the Medical Center Archives of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine between 2019 and 2023 by Pauline Flaum-Dunoyer, MD. The photographs were taken by Nicole Milano in 2019 and were transferred to the collection in 2023. The transcripts were created through an Accessibility First Grant from Echo Labs in 2024.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by St John Karp and Amanda Garfunkel in 2024. The finding aid was written by Amanda Garfunkel, Chiyong (Tali) Han, St. John Karp, and Nicole Milano. All m4a files were migrated to wav files for preservation. Individual interviews were described according to Oral History Cataloging Manual (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1995).