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Washington, D.C. — At an awards luncheon Friday, March 22, a third-year nursing student will honor a faculty member who died last year-Sandra Welner, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics/gynecology.
Welner, who had experienced mobility problems due to illness, was a strong advocate for people with disabilities, even inventing an adjustable examination table that could be lowered to ease a patient's access to and from a wheelchair. In Welner's honor, part of the student's fundraising proceeds will be used to buy a medical examination table that is accessible to women with disabilities; the rest will benefit a cancer-screening program for low-income Latina women.
Renee Cherkezian, the nursing student, said it was Welner's life and work that gave her the idea to buy the examination table. Cherkezian got to know Welner during her freshman year, when she accompanied Welner on visits to area breast health facilities, evaluating their accessibility to people with disabilities.
"I really admired the work she was doing, and we kept in touch after the semester when we worked together," Cherkezian said. "I was devastated when I learned that she had died, and I wanted to do something to honor everything she achieved when she was alive."
A longtime supporter of breast cancer awareness, Cherkezian raised nearly $12,000 last year at the Head of the Potomac, an annual race among crew teams from Division I schools, using the event as a platform to raise awareness of and money for breast cancer awareness.
"Renee's dedication to the cause of breast cancer awareness is truly admirable, especially for someone as young as she is," said Rebecca Zuurbier, director of the Betty Lou Ourisman Breast Health Center at Lombardi Cancer Center. "We were all deeply saddened by Sandra's untimely death, but Renee has provided a way to keep her memory alive."
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