2016 Walker Prize Recipient

Paula A. Johnson is an internationally recognized researcher, educator, cardiologist, and health policy expert who has dedicated her career to transforming the health of women. On July 1, 2016, she became the 14th president of Wellesley College, the preeminent liberal arts college for women.

Before coming to Wellesley, Dr. Johnson was the founder and executive director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology as well as chief of the Division of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She was the Grace A. Young Family Professor of Medicine in the Field of Women’s Health at Harvard Medical School, as well as a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has served as the chair of the board of the Boston Public Health Commission.

Dr. Johnson graduated from Harvard and Radcliffe colleges and received her MD and MPH from Harvard. She and her husband have a son, a daughter, and a Havanese puppy.