Tina Young Poussaint


Tina Young Poussaint is a Professor of Radiology at the Harvard Medical School and a Neuroradiologist at the Boston Children's Hospital. In 2010 she served as President of the American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology.

Early life and education

Poussaint was born in Rochester, New York. Poussaint's father, Lionel W. Young, as a pediatric radiologist and her mother, Florence, was also a physician. Poussaint earned a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and biology at Mount Holyoke College. She graduated Magna cum Laude and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honour society. For her gradaute studies she moved to Yale School of Medicine, where she first met Valerie E. Stone. In their class at Yale there were three African-American women out of 102 students. As a medical student at Yale Poussaint was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha. She graduated in 1983.

Research and career

Poussaint completed her residency training in diagnostic radiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and was the first African American to do so. In 1989 she became the first African-American attending physician in radiology.
Poussaint joined the Department of Radiology at 1993. She was made Director of the Neuroimaging Centre for the Pediatric Brain Tumour Consortium at Boston Children's Hospital in 2003. In 2011 Poussaint was made a full Professor in Radiology at the Harvard Medical School, and became the first African-American to hold the position. Her research considers the refinement of magnetic resonance imaging, with a focus on the diagnosis of brain tumours in children. She was made the inaugural Lionel W. Young Chair of radiology at Boston Children's Hospital.

Awards and honours

Papers

Books

Personal life

Tina Young married Alvin Pouissant in 1992. Her husband is a professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School.