Women of Color on the Frontlines: Portraits of Unsung Heroes

This project is a response to the observation that female physicians of color are underrepresented in the art, media, and reporting around the country's response to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Overview
The goal of  Women of Color on the Frontlines: Portraits of Unsung Heroes is to challenge the narrative about who in this country is on the front lines of the fight against COVID 19 by honoring women of color physicians with portraits reflecting their determination, talent and tireless work.  The project works by having women of color physicians from around the country submit photos of themselves in the PPE they don each day and then recruiting local artists who transform these photos into art.  Each portrait is a powerful reminder of the sacrifices these women make daily to serve the communities in which they live and work

A career in medicine is not easy—for many reasons—yet these women choose it. Many of them form the frontline response to the epidemic but yet we do not see their faces in the news, on billboards, or in art honoring both the sacrifices and contributions they make as medical professionals. -Sarah E. Rowan, M.D.Infectious Diseases, Denver, CO


Sarah E. Rowan has created this profoundly important project which now has over 200 photos. I just downloaded over 100 portraits based on some of the photographs.Rowan herself is a physician and artist as well as a mother. She created some of the artworks.
 Here is the rainbow of the United States, we see it here.
 And these women are extraordinary: physicians, many of them mothers, some also artists. Their compelling gazes draw us in.

Dr. Kimberly Turner by Yana Greenstein

I wasn’t surprised when I realized that I had been present in the first four obstetrical cases of Coronavirus at my small, suburban hospital.  When the pandemic started, I knew I was uniquely positioned to handle extra clinical duties, if needed.  My children are almost adults and I have always loved being a busy clinician.  My partners joke about me having a 30-year-old stamina, although I recently turned 56 years old.  One of the many tragedies regarding the national story of Covid-19 is that this deadly virus is hitting populations of color with a vengeance.  I felt in my spirit that God was preparing me, a Black female obstetrical provider, for battle.

Each time my partners announce a new obstetrical case, I cringe while waiting to hear the name of the affected patient, praying that it is not another African American or Hispanic woman.  While performing telemedicine visits with these women, they shared their fears of death, of infecting their babies, and, of being alone for delivery.  They pleaded with me to be there at the moment of their child’s birth because I was the closest person to family they would possibly see.

The previously mentioned situation is not getting much press.  My face, yes, my skin color, is placing me at increased risk of acquiring Covid-19, not only because I am a middle-aged, hypertensive, African American woman, but also because I am an African American medical provider torn between increasing my presence in risky obstetrical situations and keeping myself “distanced” to stay healthy.  The indescribable pull that I feel while answering this new call to duty is stressful and dangerous. 

All patients deserve the best medical team consisting of the most qualified providers who can also provide them the best emotional support during their care. But, the story does not just end there.  All medical providers need to address their unconscious biases to be able to truly listen to these patients and give them what they need regardless of the provider’s race. For now, those of us called to answer this “call to duty” will continue to do our best to provide excellent, compassionate care so let’s listen and welcome the stories from these beautiful physician mothers and record them for our history books."

Kimberly Moran Turner, MD, FACOG is an obstetrician/gynecologist at Johns Hopkins Community Physicians in Columbia, MD.  Dr. Turner has been an attending physician in OB/GYN since 1995.  She is a regular contributor to the Hopkins clinical excellence magazine – CLOSLER (bringing physicians closer to the founder of medicine, William Osler).

 Anna Sabryna

Anna Sabryna By Yana Greenstein

Ruth Chacko

Ruth Chacko by Yana Greenstein

Tara Frederick Howard

 Tara Frederick Howard by Shelly Rowan

 Jacinta Cooper

Jacinta Cooper by Kavitha Ryali

 Jacinta Cooper by Priscilla Sarmiento-Gupana

Shelley RubenYoLo

Shelley RubenYoLo By Sarah Rowan

Susan Platt
These amazing women doctors are all vivid to see, in both the photographs and the paintings inspired by them. Their intense dedication to our ongoing crisis is invisible to the general public, who mainly see statistics and generalizations. Seeing the individual faces of doctors who are serving all over the country is a crucial project to remind us of the real heroes of our crisis. As the statistics on the numbers of people of color contracting and dying from COVID-19 and as the health crisis continues to escalate, these women are dealing with a long term challenge to themselves, their families, and their professions. As so many in this country cavalierly declare that face masks are not necessary and social distancing is so often ignored, the people who are paying for this arrogance are the women we see here. The stay at home orders cannot apply to the people of color who are serving on the front lines.

Nora Vasquez

by Yana Greenstein

Maria A Parekh

Maria A Parekh by Mark Shelton

Melanie Hafford

 Melanie Hafford by Yana Greenstein

The website includes over one hundred women doctors of color and still counting. I will present a few more here. I feel that simply looking at their faces is so moving that little commentary is necessary. 

 by Sarah Rowan

Oluwatomilola Nwoke

 Aparna Raj Parikh by Yana Greenstein

Aparna Raj Parikh

Cristina Ferrari by Sam Eddington

 Cristina Ferrari by Sam Eddington

Madhavi Ryali by Kavitha Ryali

Vidya Mandiyan by Kavitha Ryali

Vidya Mandiyan 

Aditi Chhada by Issis Kelly

Aditi Chhada 

Sherie Khambatta

Sherie Khambatta by Nancy Pendergast

Dr. Arlanna Moshfeghi 

Dr. Arlanna Moshfeghi by Jillian Muntz

Dr. Kathleen Mangunay Pergament by Nancy Prendergast

Dr. Kathleen Mangunay Pergament by Nancy Prendergast

Jyoti Rau 

 Jyoti Rau by Kavitha Ryali

Ravneet Gil

99. Ravneet Gill by Holly McClelland

Mark Auslander: The New York Times reports on a comparable project in New York City, by  Ms. Ava Brown

She terms this the Essential Worker project:  http://ayabrown.com/series/Essential%20Workers

Ms. Brown draws these portrait of frontline essential workers, all women of color, on brown paper, since, she says, as she sees it, "“Black bodies do not need to start from white.”

Both projects appear to emphasize the careful labor drawing images of women of color by hand, as a form of homage to those who have put their lives on the line. It seems to me they share a sensibility with the more explicitly religious Ex Votos imagery found in Latin American and Latino contexts, honoring benefict interventions of the saints through the creation and offering of images, which help to intercede with divine powers. These honored women to be sure are not  venerated'saints' in a formal religious sense, but they are being honored in a profound sense through the everyday intentional labor of image making. In the face of taken for granted American systemic racism, these works of image production and dedication are doing their part to change the 'complexion' of the dominant mass culture of race, image, and power in US society.