Nanette Wenger

Nanette Kass Wenger (born September 3, 1930) is an American clinical cardiologist and professor emerita at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.

Early life and education Nanette Wenger was born September 3, 1930, in New York City to parents who had emigrated from Russia to the United States and settled in New York. Her early education was in the New York City public schools. In 1951 she graduated summa cum laude from Hunter College in New York. She received her doctor of medicine degree from Harvard Medical School in 1954 as one of their first female graduates, and began her postgraduate work at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where she became the first woman to be chief resident in the cardiology department. Over the course of her career, Wenger became one of the first doctors to focus on heart disease in women, since this disease was initially thought to primarily affect men. In 1993 Wenger co-wrote a landmark review article that demonstrated that cardiovascular disease does similarly affect women since, at the time, women were more likely than men to die from the disease. She also helped write the 2007 Guidelines for Preventing Cardiovascular Disease in Women.

Personal life She is married to Dr. Julius Wenger, a gastroenterologist; she has three daughters. In 1979, she founded the Atlanta Women’s Network, which continues to promote and enhance the success of professional women. 1999: Received the Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award from the American Heart Association. 2000: Received the James D. Bruce Memorial Award from the American College of Physicians.