Dr. Susan Kornstein Honored for Leadership and Collaboration on Women’s Health

Friends and colleagues who know Susan Kornstein, M.D., executive director of the VCU Institute for Women’s Health and a professor of psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology at the VCU School of Medicine, speak of a woman fiercely determined to fight for women’s health. 

She is a capable, enthusiastic leader whose ability to forge multi-disciplinary collaborations underscores the very essence of her mission: that advancing health for women ultimately means advancing health for all.

Dr. Kornstein, an MCV Foundation trustee, was awarded the foundation’s distinguished Jerome F. Strauss III Award at its annual awards event on June 16 at The Jefferson Hotel. Dr. Strauss is a former dean of the School of Medicine, and the award honors a VCU administrator, faculty or staff member who has demonstrated extraordinary service and stewardship to MCV Campus alumni, donors or other members of the community. 

Susan has this ability to look at something and not see one, or two sides, but all four sides, and that’s one of her strengths.

Joe Teefey, an MCV Foundation lifetime honorary trustee, a former vice president of MCV Hospitals, and former president and CEO of Virginia Premier Health Plan at VCU

VCU’s Institute for Women’s Health is world-renowned, and under Dr. Kornstein’s leadership has evolved into an entity that today involves more than 170 affiliate VCU faculty from more than a dozen schools and colleges across the university. In the last several years alone, the institute’s programs were awarded more than $36 million in research funding.  

“She’s open and engaging and she hasn’t stayed in her lane, which has catapulted her into women’s health by looking at how we can enhance lives from multiple areas, including medicine, nursing and engineering,” said Judy Collins, RN, an lifetime honorary trustee of the MCV Foundation who met Dr. Kornstein nearly 40 years ago when they both worked to establish one of the first multidisciplinary women’s health centers in the country at an academic medical center. Collins served as the founding director of that early center, which went on to be designated a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Center of Excellence. 

Collins’ husband, Joe Teefey, an MCV Foundation lifetime honorary trustee, a former vice president of MCV Hospitals, and former president and CEO of Virginia Premier Health Plan at VCU, explained that Dr. Kornstein works on behalf of a broader picture of health care for all. 

“Susan has this ability to look at something and not see one, or two sides, but all four sides, and that’s one of her strengths,” he said. “I’ve always been impressed with her knowledge, her drive and her as a person because she accomplishes whatever she sets out to accomplish.” 

Barbara Boyan, Ph.D., executive director of the VCU Institute for Engineering and Medicine, said she has worked with Dr. Kornstein for more than a decade, including collaborating on grants aimed at improving women’s careers in medicine and STEM. 

“Everyone who is part of the Institute for Women’s Health is there because Susan has created an atmosphere that is collaborative and she values each person’s contributions,” Dr. Boyan said. “She listens in ways that a lot of leaders don’t. She is one of the most collaborative people I’ve ever met, and she looks for ways to make things happen. If an idea has merit, Susan will help it become a reality.” 

Art Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Medicine, echoed those thoughts, saying that Dr. Kornstein’s superpower is reaching across the campus disciplines, from psychology and public health to pharmacy and nursing, to find the right people. 

“Dr. Kornstein understands that true impact must have perspectives from everyone,” he said. “She is an anchor of our institution.”