You’ve got to get up and make changes: Activist after mother’s cancer misdiagnosis

As a young woman growing up in segregated Lynchburg, Virginia, Vivian Pinn saw how doctors misdiagnosed a cancerous tumor in her mother's leg, which eventually led to her death.

"I identify with the struggle that women have had to make to get proper health care. I saw a doctor talk down to my mother, telling her that she needed orthopedic shoes because he didn't properly diagnose her condition," she recollected.

"I consider myself to be an activist. I believe that you can't just sit back and complain about things. You've got to get up and make changes," she said. Fueling her lifelong crusade for the inclusion of women and minorities in health care research has been her own personal commitment to social justice.

She graduated from medical school, and later served as Chair of the Pathology Department at Howard University. While at Howard, she served as president of the National Medical Association, a national organization that represents some 20,000 African-American physicians. Later she led the Office of Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health.

The experience of teaching and managing a department at a predominantly Black institution proved to be a gratifying experience. She said she especially enjoyed mentoring and teaching at Howard, and maintains close contact with her former students.

"I've enjoyed teaching and being a role model to students. It comes easily to me because I know how difficult it can be when there's no one around like yourself to be supportive," she said.

Advice: Turn your anger at medical errors into helping others live.

Read another of our activist stories, or read Ronald Roach’s source story.