Dr. Kim Pelis Named ONHM Director

Dr. Pelis has worked at the NIH for more than 15 years, primarily in the Office of the Director, where she was lead speech writer on the NIH Director's Presentations Team and an editor for the NIH Director's Blog.  Kim joins the ONHM with experience in both academic and public history.  She earned her Ph.D. in the history of medicine from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  Prior to coming to the NIH, Kim was an assistant professor of medical history at the Uniformed Services University, across the street from the NIH, from 1998 to 2005. 

For Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating the incredible achievements of women at @NIH. Here Dr. Nina Starr Braunwald checks in with a young patient. Dr. Braunwald was a pioneer in the field of cardiac surgery. One of the first women to train as a surgeon at New York’s Bellevue Hospital, she joined the National Heart Institute, now @NHLBI, in 1958. She made history in 1960, leading the first successful artificial human mitral valve replacement, using a design she created and fabricated. She developed many other valve designs, surgical treatments, and pioneering techniques during her time at NIH, leading the field of cardiac surgery.