Part 3

"Women in Medicine - What are the Issues?"

Avery’s perserverance, humor, and warmth made her an inspiration and role model to many, especially the women who aspired to achieve great things in medicine. Margaret Hostetter, Director of Infectious Disease at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, said this of working under Avery in her introduction of Avery as the 2005 John Howland Award Recipient:

"So what was it like, coming to Boston Children’s in 1975 with the first woman chair in Harvard history? Exciting wasn’t the word for it. Limitless possibilities – that was more like it – the sense that we could travel as far as our imagination led us, even to the maternity ward … Mel didn't have to deliver a baby; she delivered the message."