EATONTOWN – The Northern Monmouth County Branch of AAUW will celebrate the group’s 85th anniversary, honor local scholarship recipients and hear a special presentation by Dr. Nina Seigelstein on Monday, Oct. 7 at the Eatontown Community Center.
During the event the group will honor local scholarship recipients from Brookdale Community College, Monmouth University and Rutgers University. Seigelstein, who has provided ob/gyn services for women around the world in areas with few gynecological or obstetrical services, will be the featured speaker. Networking starts at 7 p.m. and the program begins at 7:30.
Seigelstein first came to New Jersey to work in a Monmouth County ob/gyn practice after graduating from SUNY at Buffalo School of Medicine and completing her residency at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., a division of Cornell University. After three years in this practice, Seigelstein left to work in underserved areas in the U.S. and abroad. Among the areas where she practiced are Indian Kashmir, Tasmania, Australia, and on a Navajo reservation in the U.S. In 2003, Seigelstein traveled to work in Ghana and in 2006, 2009 and 2012, she traveled to Sierra Leone to provide ob/gyn care for women there, most of whom had never had any access to medical care in their lives. Seigelstein describes these trips as powerful, exhausting experiences that included seeing as many as 50 patients a night.
During her 2009 trip to Sierra Leone, Seigelstein decided to establish One World Women’s Health. Her plan was that this group would establish a site where women in Sierra Leone could receive regular reproductive health care even when Seigelstein and other western physicians were not present. Since 2009, Seigelstein has been working toward that goal and said that work is well under way on a maternity hospital in a Sierra Leone community. As part of her presentation, Seigelstein will share pictures of the women she has cared for in Sierra Leone and tell the story of how she and other committed physicians are working to bring health care services that are standard in the U.S. to women in Africa. In New Jersey, Seigelstein assists the ob/gyns at Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank, in all major surgeries.
For more information about AAUW or the Oct. 7 program visit www.aauw-nj-nmcb.org or call 732-933-4855.
