Gene-Ann Polk Horne (October 3, 1926 – January 3, 2015), known professionally as Gene-Ann Polk, was an American physician and hospital administrator, director of pediatric ambulatory care at
Harlem Hospital
Harlem Hospital Center, branded as NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, is a 272-bed, public teaching hospital affiliated with Columbia University. It is located at 506 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City and was founded in 1887.
The hosp ...
, and a professor of pediatrics at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
Early life and education
Gene-Ann Polk was born in
Roselle, New Jersey
Roselle (, ) is a borough located in Union County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 21,085,Howard University alumni; her father was a physician, and her mother was active in Girl Scouting, education, health, and other community activities.Boylan, Daryl "Olive Mae Bond Polk" in The Women's Project of New Jersey, ed., ''Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women'' (Syracuse University Press 1997): 380-381. Her godmother was physician Myra Smith Kearse, mother of judge
Amalya Lyle Kearse
Amalya Lyle Kearse (born June 11, 1937)Goldstein, Tom. "Amalya Lyle Kearse; Woman in the News", ''The New York Times'', June 25, 1979. is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and a worl ...
. She studied piano and cello in her youth, and was selected for the New Jersey All-State Orchestra twice.
She graduated from Abraham Clark High School in Roselle. She briefly studied music at Howard University, then moved her studies to
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
, where she completed a bachelor's degree in 1948. She earned a medical degree at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1952. She also earned a master's degree in public health at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
Career
Polk had a long career at Harlem Hospital, from 1953 when she began her residency, to her retirement in 1994. She was director of pediatric ambulatory care at Harlem Hospital from 1968 to 1975, director of pediatrics from 1975 to 1978, and director of ambulatory care services (1978-1994). She also chaired the Cultural Affairs committee of the hospital's medical board, from 1988 to 1994, and was credited with protecting and restoring the hospital's
WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
* Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance An ...
murals. She was a professor of clinical pediatrics at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1962 to 1994.
Polk was an expert in neonatal drug exposure and established a neonatal transfusion program at Harlem Hospital to address drug dependency in newborns. Polk was an active member of the
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen stud ...
sorority, and helped establish the Susan Smith McKinney Steward Medical Society. In late 2014, she gave an oral history interview for the Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine, Center for the History of Medicine at Countway Library, Harvard University.
Personal life
Gene-Ann Bond married oral surgeon Edwin Clay Horne. They lived in
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from por ...
, and had two children, Edwin and Carol. She died from
pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...
in January 2015, aged 88 years, at her home in
Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania
Lafayette Hill is an unincorporated community, primarily within Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. A small part of it is in Springfield Township.
Lafayette Hill is located just west of ...
. Her papers are in the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...