MEET LOCAL LEGEND: Linda Brodsky, M.D.

BIOGRAPHY

“Throughout her career in Buffalo, Dr. Brodsky has committed herself and her work to improving healthcare for children in our community and across the country,” wrote Louise Slaughter [D–NY–28] in "proudly recommending" Linda Brodsky as a Local Legend.

Representative Thomas Reynolds [R–NY–26], who also nominated Brodsky, remarks, “In each of her roles– as a doctor, an educator and an author – she has risen to the top of her field. We are incredibly fortunate to have an individual in our region with such extraordinary devotion and abilities as Dr. Brodsky.”

Brodsky's dedication to children's health was highlighted in 2002 when, as a trustee of the "Women and Children First" committee, she helped lead the successful fight to prevent closure of The Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo – WCHOB – which, for more than a century, has been the regional center for comprehensive, specialized pediatric and women's health service for western New York State. It admits more than 25,000 patients annually and provides health care to more than 123,000 outpatients at its emergency room or 45 clinics.

She founded and continues to serve as Director of the Center for Pediatric Quality –CPQ– at the Women's and Children's Research Foundation at the WCHOB. Under her leadership, CPQ has won numerous awards and grants, including one from the New York State Department of Health for groundbreaking work in medication safety. She also directs the WCHOB's Department of Pediatric Otolaryngology, Center for Pediatric Otolaryngology and Communicative Disorders and Department of Speech, Language and Hearing.

In addition to her remarkable dedication to the WCHOB, Brodsky has an illustrious academic and teaching career. As Professor of Otolaryngology and Pediatrics at the State University of New York at SUNY–Buffalo, she is one of approximately only 20 women in the country to achieve the rank of full, tenured professorship in otolaryngology. However, as with so many women physicians, this distinction has not come easily.

In 1996, after much delay between promotions, she was promoted to full professor. But in 1997 she discovered that new male physicians were being hired at four to five times the compensation she was receiving for her work. Then in 1998 SUNY removed Brodsky's tenure, compensation and benefits by unilaterally changing her status to non–salaried voluntary faculty. It wasn't until she filed suit in federal district court in 2001 that SUNY restored her status. The case is currently pending.

Brodsky says her fight for equal pay for equal work is not just for her personal gain, but to help create a gender–free environment in higher education. “Few women, even at the top of their field are being paid equitably,” she says. “If women are not in the work environment themselves or have not experienced inequities directly, they have mothers, sisters, or daughters, and this fact makes the issue basic and relevant to every person.”

For advancing the technology and improving the care of children suffering from ear, nose and throat illnesses, Brodsky has received numerous awards, including being cited as one of the Best Doctors in America — from 1992 to 2002— and being named Honorary Chair of President Bush's Advisory Board on Health Care Reform.