Dr muriel petioni biography of michael jackson

Muriel Petioni, M.D., Saves Harlem Hospital From Closing

By Joan Baum, Ph.D.

She opens the door of her sunny Harlem apartment, a wide smile showing off high cheekbones. She’s elegant, slim, dressed in a simple floor-length dashiki.

This exhibition from the National Library of Medicine celebrates women physician's year history of leadership in their medical practice and research.

Tribute to Michael Jackson and Lena Horne.

Muriel Petioni.

Linear feet (10 boxes).

Kathleen Courtenay Stone examines the lives of seven high-achieving women born before , all of whom broke barriers with their own singular achievements.

With a laugh she continues to adjust her earrings, as she graciously escorts a visitor to a comfortable chair, facing a wall of African masks. Dr. Muriel Petioni, called several years ago “the mother of medicine in Harlem,” is 93 years old.

Her voice is strong, her memory infallible, her movements fluid, her articulation flawless, her delivery frank (she likes to be “direct, but always courteous”). At Barnard College’s commencement this month she will receive the Barnard Medal of Distinction.

There have been honors before, there could easily be dozens more, for Dr. Petioni has been for well over half a century a leading voice at and for Harlem Hospital, where she served her own internship and developed a mentoring pro