Dr. Elizabeth Nabel delivered the following presentation as the Lee E. Farr Lecturer on May 7, 2013, which served as the culmination of the annual Student Research Day at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Nabel is President of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her lecture to Yale medical students portrayed her own personal and professional journey through medicine as a series of opportunities. Dr. Nabel focused on the roles and responsibilities of physicians to recognize need and to make change through focused advocacy.
Keywords: Farr Lecture; Rwanda; academic medicine; advocacy; change; global health; health care reform; progeria; transplant; women’s heart health.