Magazine Picks Top Moms In Health Care

As Washington mulls what will happen next with President Obama's proposed health care reforms, Working Mother magazine has named the 10 most powerful moms in health care.

The president's agenda suffered a potential setback earlier this week when the Democrats lost the 60th Senate seat in a special election for late Senator Ted Kennedy's seat. Democrats are now mulling a scaled-down version of the health care overhaul.

The magazine picked working moms from a variety of fields, including business and politics; each mother has at least one child under 18.

Why pick top working mothers in health care? In a press release, the head of Working Mother Media, Carol Evans, said, "Moms are the health managers of their families, so it is not surprising to find many powerful moms in the health care field where they can contribute creativity and intelligence to this area that affects the lives of people every day."

The magazine chose the following working mothers:

Nancy Andrews, MD
Dr. Andrews, the dean of the Duke University Medical School, is the only woman who leads a top 10 medical school in the U.S. According to Working Mother magazine, more than half of all medical students in the U.S. are women but that ratio doesn't seem to apply yet to leadership positions.

Angela Braly
The magazine chose Braly, president and CEO of insurance giant WellPoint, because of her prominent position at the helm of a Fortune 500 company. According to Fortune magazine, only 15 Fortune 500 companies are run by women.

Nancy-Ann DeParle
As director of the White House Office of Health Reform, Nancy-Ann DeParle is President Obama's Obama's health czar. DeParle, a mother of two, worked in the Clinton White House on health care policy.

Julie Freischlag
Dr. Julie Freischlag chairs the Department of Surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. According to the magazine, she is one of only three female chief surgeons in the U.S.

Melinda Gates
Gates, a mother of three, co-chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. According to the foundation Web site, Bill and Melinda Gates have made more than $20 billion in grant commitments since the foundation's inception. Health care is a focal point of the foundation.

Deborah Peel, MD
Dr. Peel is the founder of the Patient Privacy Rights organization. According to the magazine, Peel's "concern is that the technology and programs that are meant to help patients can also be used for malice and discrimination."

Amy Schulman
Schulman, a mom of three, is a vice president and general counsel at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. According to Working Mother, Schulman is working actively to bring more women into the company's executive ranks.

Susan Sheridan
Sheridan co-founded and leads Consumers Advancing Patient Safety, an organization dedicated to preventing medical errors.

Kate Walsh
Walsh is the president and CEO of the Boston Medical Center. According to the magazine, the 626-bed hospital serves some of Boston's poorest residents.

Anne Wojcicki
Internet entrepreneur Anne Wojcicki co-founded the genetic information Web site 23andMe. Wojcicki is married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.