Jeanne Fryar

Memories of a sad, long-ago Christmas explain why Jeanne Fryar supports the Adopt-A-Patient program at Einstein Healthcare Network. The program, funded by donations from employees such as Fryar, provides a gift to every patient who’s hospitalized over the holidays.

This year, more than 1,000 inpatients at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, Einstein Medical Center Elkins Park and MossRehab, will receive blankets and slipper socks. Nurses in each unit will give out the gifts on Wednesday, Dec. 21 and Thursday, Dec. 22.

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For Einstein orthopedic surgeon Richard E. Grant, MD, dedication to diversity and inclusion runs deep.

“It really started with my dad, Benjamin F. Grant,” he says. “My dad was a doctor, but he was also a civil rights activist out of Muncie, IN. He saw two goals for someone to be a responsible individual: they had to have a direction in life and a sense of dedication to something.”

He also credits the courage and determination of his social worker mother, Juanita C. Grant, MSW. A strong role model, she worked her way up from poverty and difficult circumstances to earn her master’s degree before she met her husband.

Though he doesn’t consider himself a civil rights activist, Dr. Grant’s own experience coming up through the ranks of medicine also made it clear to him that although there’s been notable progress, there’s still a way to go before women and minorities are better represented in orthopedics. That’s why he has dedicated himself to opening up the field—and it’s for those efforts that the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is presenting him with the organization’s 2017 Diversity Award.

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When patients visit the Marion-Louise Saltzman Women’s Center at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, one of the many friendly faces they see while checking in is that of health unit coordinator La Shawn Ford. In at least one way in particular, Ford is especially memorable. On any given day, Ford is a symphony in purple: Purple scrubs. Purple eye shadow. Purple nails. Purple lipstick.

Check out the Einstein Healthcare Network logo and you’ll see that purple is our color, too. For Ford, though, wearing purple is mostly a becoming fashion statement. “I like purple,” she concedes. “That’s one of my favorite colors, so I wear it all the time.”

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