Interview with Donna Mendes, MD by Norma M.T. Braun, MD

Donna M Mendes, MD is a nationally and internationally recognized vascular surgeon. A 1977 graduate of Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons, she continued training at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center where she has practiced since 1984. Drawn to vascular surgery during the very early development of that field, she is the first black woman to board certified by the American Board of Surgery in vascular surgery. Dr. Mendes was also the first Chief of Vascular Surgery at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s (1992-1998), is very active in professional associations, and mentoring young women interested in pursuing a career in surgery.

Dr. Norma Braun (neé Wang Mai Tsen) was born in Shanghai, China during the third Japanese invasion, before the World War II. Prior to the war her family was well off and very well educated. Both her grandfather and father spent time in American universities. Norma, however did not attend school until age 10, because of the war. In 1949, she, her mother and siblings relocated to Philadelphia. Norma, who desired to be a doctor from a young age, started medical school at Temple University but transferred to Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons (Class of 1963) after being offered a scholarship. She completed her internship and residency at Bellevue Hospital and began working at St. Luke’s Hospital in 1982, as a cardio-pulmonary fellow under A. Loomis Bell, MD, who ran the cardiopulmonary laboratory. Eventually she narrowed her specialty to pulmonary medicine, and continues to work in that area at St. Luke’s, now Mount Sinai Morningside.