Dr. Kenneth C. Edelin is Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and from 1989 to 2006 was the Associate Dean for Student and Minority Affairs at Boston University School of Medicine. From 1994 to 2006 he was the Director of the Early Medical School Selection Program (EMSSP) at Boston University School of Medicine.

For eleven years - from 1978 - 1989-, Dr. Edelin was Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine and Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston City Hospital and Gynecologist-in-Chief at Boston University Hospital.  In these roles he was also Director of the residency-training program in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston City Hospital. From 1996 to 1998 he was Managing Director of Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center, the largest provider of primary health care services in Boston’s African American Community. Dr. Edelin was a member of the Public Health Commission of the City of Boston, appointed to that position on July 1, 1996.  His term ended in January 1998.

 

Dr. Edelin is or has been a member of many professional and civic organizations.  He was Chairman of the Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and was a member of the Committee on Ethics and Discipline of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He was a member of the Board of the Alan Guttmacher Institute and is a member of the National Board of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He is an emeritus member of the Board of Directors of OneUnited Bank, the first interstate, and the first internet African American owned Bank in America. From 1989 to 1992 he was the Chairman of the Board of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the largest private family planning agency in the country, with over 900 family planning clinics nationwide.

 

Dr. Edelin received his undergraduate education at Columbia University in New York City, and his medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee during which time he was a founding member of the Student National Medical Association.  After a tour of duty in the United States Air Force, he received his specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston City Hospital, and became the first African American to become Chief Resident in the history of the department. Five years after completing his residency, Dr. Edelin became Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine.

Dr. Edelin has published widely in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology, with special emphasis in the areas of teen pregnancy prevention and substance abuse during pregnancy.  He is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha -the Honor Medical Society, and has been listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who Among Black Americans and Who’s Who in the World.  He has received the Good Guy Award from the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Medical Association and was named One of America’s Leading Black Doctors by Black Enterprise Magazine.  He has received over $2 million in grant support for programs designed to increase the number of under-represented minority physicians in America.

 

In August 2007 Dr. Edelin published his critically acclaimed memoir: Broken Justice. A True Story of Race, Sex and Revenge in a Boston Courtroom.

 

Dr. Edelin is the 2008 recipient of the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Broken Justice won the Bronze Medal in the Independent Publishers Book Award competition in June 2008.

 

Dr. Edelin has lectured widely and has testified before congress on numerous occasions.

 

 

Jesse Mermell is the Executive Director of FairTest, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a 25 year old organization that works to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers, and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial. Mermell joined FairTest early in 2008 after serving as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus since 2004.

 

In 2007 Mermell was elected to the Board of Selectmen in Brookline, Massachusetts – becoming the youngest person in the history of Brookline to hold the position, and creating a female majority on the Board for the first time since the Town’s founding. Before becoming a Selectman, Mermell served as an elected member of the Board of Trustees of the Brookline Public Library.

 

Mermell is an activist in the Massachusetts Democratic Party as a member of the Democratic State Committee, where she served on the Executive Committee from 2001 to 2004. In 2002 she was awarded the Michael S. Dukakis Award for service to the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Additionally, she is a member of the Board of Directors for both the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts Advocacy Fund and Citizens for Public School, and is an Advisory Board member for Emerge Massachusetts.