Nanette Santoro
Nanette Santoro, MD
SRI President, 2021-2022
The Year I was president of SRI, we had just managed to come back from the COVID pandemic, having had to cancel the 2020 meeting and have an abbreviated meeting 2021 in Boston with Jim Segars as president. We had made a fateful decision to delay the Presidency by one year to allow for each president to be able to host a meeting. This led to a one year breach in the presidential chain of succession and a suspension of elections. This decision did not seem to cause much controversy. Tragically, however, Carole Mendelson, the president who succeeded me, was struggling with a cancer that caused her to miss her presidential meeting in Brisbane and she passed away a few weeks before we all gathered there to honor her and her legacy.
There was great concern about the attendance that we could expect since the pandemic had had such a chilling effect on public gatherings. However, we were able to get 380 people involved in the Wednesday satellite meetings, and overall registration topped out at 800 indicating a strong recovery despite all the suspense and lingering dread. I don’t think I am speaking only for myself when I say that there was unbridled joy in being able to assemble as a group of reproductive scientists after years of social distancing!
My concern about where our country was heading in terms of women’s health, reproductive rights, and reproductive research led me to seek a plenary speaker who could discuss these issues of national import. Shaughnessy Naughton, President of 314 Action, an organization dedicated to electing scientists to public office to support the use of evidence and facts when making policy decisions, gave an excellent talk about how the organization was founded and its mission. The Denver meeting kicked off a friendship with Shaughnessy that has continued. As 314 Action has grown, I have held several fundraisers in my home and continue to celebrate their successes.
Professor Elizabeth Swisher was our Friday plenary speaker and regaled us with her scientific journey into personalized medicine for ovarian cancer. The President’s Achievement Award went to Dr. Dineo Khabele, who was an RSDP fellow when during my years at Einstein, and Dr. Gerson Weiss, who was my Chair for ten years and a great supporter, sponsor and friend, was honored with the SRI Mentorship Award. Dr Sarah England most deservedly received the DeCherney Society Lifetime Distinguished Service Award, and the Distinguished Scientist Award went to Dr. Kunle Odunsi.
For my Presidential Address, I got to live one of my dreams and create my own music video. I chose the smash Broadway hit, Hamilton, for its tune and convinced my faculty to sing and dance to the song ‘My Shot’ with lyrics altered to create the tag line: ‘I’m not giving away my grant’ (you can find it here: https://medschool.cuanschutz.edu/ob-gyn/divisions/division-of-reproductive-sciences). I remember seeing Sarah England doubled over laughing while my science division faculty members were bellowing, ‘when are these ovaries…gonna wise up’! For my address, I chose to envision what optimal reproductive health would be like in a world that was truly egalitarian towards women by featuring Iceland, the nation that is consistently singled out for its gender equality. What’s most interesting and perhaps not surprising is that when you live in a society that is the best place in the world to be a woman, it is also the best place in the world to be a man. The life expectancy for men born in Iceland is the longest in the world, at 81 years. Sadly, our country and much of the world seem to be moving in the opposite direction with respect to female equality. But it remains important to keep one’s eye on the prize and dream big!
Friday evening, of course, belonged to the Featles, who gave their usual outstanding performance. Dancing was more enthusiastic than ever because of the pleasure of being together again.
It was great fun to host the meeting in my home city of Denver, and I got to spend a week in the penthouse suite of the Grand Hyatt, where I invited all of my friends and colleagues every evening! The suite had a piano among its many other amenities, and if there is a piano and Rick Paulson is in the room, there will be music!