Dr. Mary Guinan

Overview

Mary Guinan is an American physician and epidemiologist who joined the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1974 as the only woman physician in her class of "disease detectives." Soon after, she traveled to India to work in the smallpox eradication program, searching out and isolating people with the disease. In 1981, she was part of the CDC team that investigated the first cases of a mysterious new illness that would become known as AIDS, helping identify its major risk factors and treating some of the earliest patients. She became the first woman to serve as chief scientific advisor to the CDC director, and later became Nevada's first female state health officer and the founding dean of the public health school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Why She Matters

Mary Guinan worked on two of the biggest disease challenges of the twentieth century, the final push to end smallpox and the emergence of AIDS, at a time when very few women worked in epidemiology. Her career shows that disease detective work requires not just scientific skill but courage, since she often had to gather evidence about diseases nobody yet understood. Later in her career, she helped build a new school to train public health workers in Nevada and funded scholarships and paid internships for its students. Her story shows young people, especially young women, that persistence and curiosity can open doors in a field that once seemed closed to them.