Women’s Health Equity – A Threefold Mission:

Equality in Higher Education, Gender-based Research, and Access to Health Care for Everyone

The United States, in fact the world, has a recent and intense focus on women’s health and the effect it has on the

health of our communities, our economy and quite frankly the future. But for more than half a century Professor Gloria

Sarto, MD, PhD has focused her remarkable intellect and sense of compassion on lifting the status of women worldwide.

Her humble roots growing up in southeastern Wisconsin instilled in her a powerful work ethic, a thirst for learning and

the desire to improve the world. Dr. Sarto did not set out to fundamentally change the way medical education includes

women, or how research is conducted so equal attention is given to women’s biology, or maybe most importantly

improving access to those who have the least…but she did.

This extraordinary woman has not stopped working on behalf of improving the lives of women, their families, and in turn,

their communities, since she entered St. Luke’s Hospital Nursing School in Racine, Wisconsin in 1947.

THE GLORIA E. SARTO, MD, PHD Chair in Women’s Health and Health Equity Research

[ PLEASE CONTINUE INSIDE ]

Endowed chairs have become an essential tool in advancing the mission of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

They not only help us recruit and retain the top scholars in any field of study, they provide critical annual funding for

research.

By investing in the Gloria E. Sarto Chair you are investing in the

future of women’s health equity, and all the promise that equity in

health care provides to women, their families, their communities

and the future. By investing in this chair you are investing in

the great institution that nurtured and supported Dr. Sarto and

gave her the intellectual foundation to trust in the belief that one

compassionate and dedicated person can make a significant

difference in the world.

Sincerely,

Laurel W. Rice, MDProfessor and Chair Ben Miller Peckham Chair in Obstetrics and GynecologyDepartment of Obstetrics and GynecologySchool of Medicine and Public HealthUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisonDecember 2013

Grateful CountryDr. Sarto is indeed a pioneer. Senator Olympia Snowe and I co-chaired the Congressional Caucus on Women’s Issues and

had quite a battle getting women’s health taken seriously by the NIH and our colleagues. Those in the field of medicine,

like Dr. Sarto, were brave to step up and say they were willing to run the office of Women’s Health at NIH. Their male

colleagues were totally against it and thought we were politicizing medical science. It’s important to remind people

how brave she was and important in the advancement of research by the NIH, which would benefit women’s health

in the future.

Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, Member of the US House of Representative from Colorado 1973–1997

Gloria Sarto, present day

OB-37386-13It Starts With You YOUR GIFT HELPS PATIENTS AND FAMILIES

AND SUPPORTS RESEARCH

She was a Lamaze trailblazer and lost her hospital privileges for

24 hours for allowing a non-medical person into the delivery

room—a friend of the women giving birth, whose husband was

a truck driver and needed to be on the road. When she was a

resident, there were no showers for women, but Dr. Peckham made

sure she had one.

Dr. Sarto and her colleagues Drs. Vivian Pinn, Bernadine Healy

and Florence Hasletine among others worked hard to ensure that

health research had an equal focus on women’s health and biology.

They worked with the U.S. Congressional Caucus on Women,

which included Senator Olympia Snowe, Congresswomen Barbara

Mikulski, Pat Schroeder and Connie Morella, and others. Together, these trailblazing women were responsible for the

establishment of The Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) at the National Institute of Health (NIH). This office was

established in September 1990—think about that, 1990 was not that long ago.

In 2010 the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public

Health Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology established

the Center for Women’s Health and Health Disparities

Research, of which Dr. Sarto is the director. The mission of

this center is to continue to be a leader in advancing research

in women’s health, health equity, and to prepare scholars for

independent academic research career.

To honor and ensure the work and legacy of this extraordinary

woman continues in perpetuity, we have created a $1.5

million endowment fund to establish the Gloria E. Sarto, MD,

PhD, Chair in Women’s Health and Health Equity Research.

This chair will allow us to recruit and retain the top physician

or researcher whose work is focused on advancing women’s

health through health equity research. We are a leader in

this area because Dr. Sarto has called the UW her academic

home for most of her life.

Dr. Sarto’s desire to improve the lives of women and their children is innate. She came of age before the women’s

movement, but she intuitively knew only through gender equality would the world advance, and she was right. Her entire

career has focused on serving the underserved, mentoring women who have less opportunity to realize their academic

dreams, and that decisions made within health research are grounded in evidence-based science of the female body.

Endowing the Sarto Legacy

At the foundation of all health care, including women’s

health, is academic medicine and the great institutions that

train health care providers. Dr. Sarto had the privilege of

attending the University of Wisconsin as a medical student

in 1950 and as an obstetrics and gynecology resident in

1959. People, like her mentor and department chair during

her residency, Dr. Ben Peckham, saw something special

in her. Additionally, in classic Sarto style, as she worked

with patients who presented with Turners Syndrome, she

determined in order to provide the best care to these

patients she needed to learn more about this disorder, and

went on to earn her PhD in Medical Genetics at the UW in

1971.

The accomplishments of this remarkable woman, whose life began on October 20, 1929 in Racine, Wisconsin, are too

many to name in this short document. But this quiet champion conducted the first amniocentesis in Wisconsin, where she

drew the amniotic fluid, grew the cultures, made the diagnosis and worked with the patient to provide her the best options.

Gloria Sarto, 9th grade St. Luke’s Nursing School, 1948-50 UW-Madison Medical School Class 1958

Grateful StudentI performed my first pelvic examination as a third year medical student in 1961. This stressful procedure (for everyone)

became more so when I couldn’t feel the ovaries. Dr. Sarto very patiently explained and demonstrated the technique

again. I repeated the exam successfully. Dr. Sarto was very kind and considerate both to the patient— and to me. The

episode left a strong impression on me: This is a fine physician.

Phillip Lerner, MD, General Surgeon, UW Med School, Class of 1963

Residency 1959-1963

Assistant Professor Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, UW-Madison, 1966-70

Grateful PatientI was very fortunate to be a participant in Dr. Sarto’s pioneering research on the fertility drug Clomid more than

45 years ago. She inspired my utmost confidence and trust by her expertise, her personal presence, and her

communication style that treated me with consideration and respect. Consequently were able to realize the fulfillment

of two beloved children and six grandchildren that my husband and I would not have experienced without Dr. Sarto’s

expert intervention. Throughout these years, I remember Dr. Sarto with fondness and deep appreciation.

Carol T. former patient

Health Express Bus, Prentice Women’s Hospital, 1976-81