Bonita Stanton, MD, founding dean of Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and president of Academic Enterprise at Hackensack Meridian Health, died Jan. 19.
Dr. Stanton's legacy extends across the globe and is evident in her final mission — reinventing medical education to improve healthcare, according to a Jan. 20 news release.
"The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Hackensack Meridian Health, and all of us who knew her and worked closely with her will honor Dean Stanton's memory by continuing to build on her exceptional legacy," said Robert Garrett, CEO of Edison, N.J.-based Hackensack Meridian Health.
Dr. Stanton earned her MD at New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University School of Medicine. She served on the faculty of College Park-based University of Maryland, Morgantown-based West Virginia University and Detroit-based Wayne State University.
Some of her accomplishments include major research contributions toward global HIV prevention, authoring more than 350 peer-reviewed manuscripts and serving as an editor of several textbooks. With fellow faculty members, she established the Phyllis Bodel Infant and Child Care Center at the Yale School of Medicine. She served as president of the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs and also chaired the Women in Pediatrics Federation of Pediatric Organizations Task Force on Women in Pediatrics.
Early in her career, Dr. Stanton worked for the World Bank in Bangladesh and saved lives through the prevention and treatment of diarrheal diseases. This early chapter in Dr. Stanton's career built the foundation of the medical school's mission to work to eliminate disparities of health outcomes based on race and ethnicity.