Mary "Molly" Carnes is an American physician who is a professor in the departments of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Industrial & Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She Directs the Center for Women's Health Research, the Women Veterans Health Program, and the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute. Her research looks to develop interventions that increase the participation of people from historically excluded groups in science.

Molly Carnes
Born
1951 (age 72–73)
Alma materUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Michigan
University at Buffalo
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison

Early life and education

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Carnes was born in Youngstown, Ohio.[1] Her parents were both veterans of World War II, and her father was a Unitarian minister.[1] She grew up in Memphis, but moved to Buffalo, New York during the civil rights movement.[1] She attended The Campus School, a progressive, lab-based educational establishment that provided teacher training.[2] She was going to apply for languages, and considered Middlebury College, but eventually applied to the University of Michigan.[1] Her Freshman exams were cancelled due to the Black Action Movement, and Carnes found it difficult to readjust. She eventually dropped out of college, and worked in several short term jobs before realizing she was happier in formal education.[3] She moved to the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine for her medical degree.[3][4] Carnes specialized in internal medicine and geriatrics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[5]

Research and career

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Carnes started her career working in geriatrics at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital. She helped to establish the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Research Center, which focuses on ageing and Alzheimer's disease.[3] At the time, concepts such as the social determinants of health had yet to be established, and Carnes had to develop a multidisciplinary approach to support her patients. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs recognised that only 15% of the United States Armed Forces were women, and there was very little research into women's health. Simultaneously, the National Institutes of Health set up an Office on the Research of Women's Health. This prompted Carnes to shift her focus from geriatrics to veteran's women's health. She was awarded a National Institutes of Health Mid-Career Academic Leadership Award to develop research on geriatric women's health.[3][6] She founded the UW-Madison Center for Women's Health Research, which became a National Center of Excellence.[7]

Carnes became interested in the underrepresentation of women scientists, and decided to study the science workforce through an epidemiological lens.[citation needed] In 2001, she was awarded an National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant, and launched the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[8][9] Through the WISELI, Carnes performed a climate survey on women faculty members, developed a professorship program, and designed a workshop to train faculty hiring committees in unconscious bias.[10] Attendance at the faculty hiring committee workshop correlated with enhanced hiring of women faculty members.[11] Carnes was supported by the National Institutes of Health to develop a training program on bias literacy called “break the bias habit".[12] The WISELI eventually became a well recognized research center, producing both cutting-edge scholarship on the participation of women in science and implementing evidence-based solutions.[13] She was awarded the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center Linda Joy Pollin Heart Health Leadership Award.[14]

Carnes worked with the Games, Learning and Society Centre to create an immersive game that introduced players to the impacts of bias.[15] She showed that video games could reduce implicit bias because they made people more empathetic.[16]

In 2019, Carnes was awarded a WARF Named Professorship, which she named after Virginia Valian, an American psycholinguist.[17] In 2022, the WISELI was awarded the National Institutes of Health Prize for Enhancing Faculty Gender Diversity in Biomedical and Behavioural Science.[13]

Selected publications

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Pfahler, Sandy; Coleman, Joyce; Carnes, Mary (Molly) (2006). "Oral History Interview: Mary (Molly) Carnes (675)". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Lee, Richard (2014-01-01). "The Campus School at SUNY Buffalo State, 1871-1991". A Selection of Works on the History of Buffalo State.
  3. ^ a b c d "Molly Carnes breaks through biases". UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  4. ^ "Article Host page - fall 2014". www.buffalo.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  5. ^ "Molly Carnes". www.wisconsinacademy.org. 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  6. ^ "Previous Award Winners: Women in Medicine and Science Leadership Development Award". AAMC. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  7. ^ "Center for Women's Health Research - The Wisconsin Idea Database". wisconsinidea.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  8. ^ "Learn About NSF ADVANCE | Women In Science & Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI)". wiseliarchive.engr.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  9. ^ "People of WISELI | Women In Science & Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI)". wiseliarchive.engr.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  10. ^ "New Directions for WISELI". WISELI. 2023-03-08. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  11. ^ Sheridan, Jennifer T.; Fine, Eve; Pribbenow, Christine Maidl; Handelsman, Jo; Carnes, Molly (June 2010). "Searching for excellence & diversity: increasing the hiring of women faculty at one academic medical center". Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. 85 (6): 999–1007. doi:10.1097/ACM.0b013e3181dbf75a. ISSN 1938-808X. PMC 4128022. PMID 20505400.
  12. ^ "Carnes, Molly". WISELI. 2018-10-22. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  13. ^ a b "NIH recognizes WISELI for its work to improve gender diversity in academia | Research | UW–Madison". Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  14. ^ "Molly Carnes, M.D., receives inaugural Linda Joy Pollin Heart Health Leadership Award". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  15. ^ "News | WCER". wcer.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  16. ^ Gutierrez, Belinda; Kaatz, Anna; Chu, Sarah; Ramirez, Dennis; Samson-Samuel, Clem; Carnes, Molly (December 2014). ""Fair Play": A Videogame Designed to Address Implicit Race Bias Through Active Perspective Taking". Games for Health Journal. 3 (6): 371–378. doi:10.1089/g4h.2013.0071. ISSN 2161-7856. PMC 4559151. PMID 26192644.
  17. ^ "Molly Carnes receives WARF Named Professorship". WISELI. 2019-05-06. Retrieved 2023-04-09.