Mary Lake Polan, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., served as the chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Stanford University School of Medicine from 1990 to 2006 and is currently a Clinical Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Polan has a long-standing interest in women’s health research and has been actively involved in international public health. While at Stanford Medical School, she initiated The Eritrean Women’s Project in 2001 and has maintained this surgical project in Eritrea to repair fistulas resulting from traumatic births.