Meg D. Newman

Born August 16, 1955, Roslyn, N.Y.

Countless people have been touched by Meg Newman’s life as an activist, a leader, and a physician.

Meg’s political consciousness was born in 1967 as the Vietnam War escalated, when she was 12 years old. Attending an anti-war rally opened her eyes, and she began a long life of activism and organizing. The following year, in junior high school, Meg started a group called Students Strive for Humanity to support migrant farmworkers. She volunteered for the United Farm Workers in many capacities for 13 years, eventually moving to Fresno, Calif. to do so.

At the age of 16, Meg walked into a phone booth and made a phone call that helped change the lives of millions of girls and women. A natural athlete, Meg was a talented young shortstop, but schools did not have baseball teams for girls. She had tried out for the boys’ team and made the cut, but school district officials removed her from the field. She called the American Civil Liberties Union and became part of the class action lawsuit that resulted in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The law  equalized Federal funding for girls’ and boys’ sports, giving girls and women access to many sports programs for the first time and launching new generations of female athletes.

Meg went on to work as an outdoor educator, introducing youths to nature. She volunteered with the American Friends Service Committee, building roads in Mexico and homes for low-income residents of Florida. Throughout her life, she has given extra time and resources to many non-profit groups. She became one of the first Domestic Partners in California, and married Sherry Boschert in one of the first same-sex marriages in the state.

Meg found her calling as a healer and a physician, positively affecting the lives of untold numbers of patients and clinicians. She attended college at Fresno State University, where she played basketball and, later, became the second female emergency medical technician in Fresno County. Meg trained as a physician assistant and worked at San Francisco General Hospital in the early years of the AIDS epidemic. That inspired her to earn a medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She returned to San Francisco General Hospital, where she became a leader in HIV care and women’s health. Her impact ripples widely through the health care workers from many countries whom she has taught and mentored.

Dr. Royce Lin spoke for many in a message sent when Meg’s name was added to the MuestraPeace mural on the Women’s Building: “In the quiet of night on the outskirts of Bloemfontein in South Africa, I feel so moved and grateful…  Her teaching, her gentle and loving approach to HIV care is alive and well, in the practice of the many individuals she has directly trained, and the many more that she has indirectly touched.”

Honored by Sherry Boschert