Judith D. Widmann

Judith D. Widmann "was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in English Literature and received a Master of Arts degree in teaching English from New York University.

"During the 1970’s she was a staff writer for “Of Westchester” magazine. While researching an article on services for handicapped children available in Westchester County, she learned of a graduate degree program recently initiated at Sarah Lawrence College which would train individuals, most of whom had a liberal arts background, to become genetic counselors. This brand new field would help explain the soon-to-be-discovered secrets of our genetic makeup to patients, physicians and the world at large.

"Graduating with a Master of Science in Human Genetics, she because the first genetic counselor at a comprehensive Hemophilia Center in 1977, at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. The program was funded by grant from the National Genetic Disease Act, recently been passed by Congress. From there, she moved to New York Hospital, where she was a pre-natal and pediatric genetic counselor for over 20 years. She was a founding member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, which established qualifying exams to board- certify genetic counselors around the country and Canada. In addition to delivering clinical services, she taught first and second year medical students at Cornell Medical School as part of their unit on genetics.

"Since retirement in 2000, Mrs. Widmann has been active with Planned Parenthood, serving on the Board of Directors of her local chapter, PPHP, which is one of the largest affiliates in Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She has volunteered for Planned Parenthood at health fairs, trained as part of their Speaker’s Bureau for a very successful program called “How to Talk to Your Kids About Sex”, worked on fund raising and registered voters at the local Planned Parenthood health centers.

"Mrs. Widmann is married to Roger Widmann, an investment banker. They have three grown children."


 * Director, PCI-Media Impact