[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 159 (Thursday, November 11, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2364]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              DR. PALMA FORMICA: ``WOMAN OF THE CENTURY''

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 10, 1999

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, November 15, 1999, Saint Peter's 
University Hospital and the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Central 
New Jersey will honor Palma E. Formica, M.D., of Old Bridge, NJ, as a 
Woman of the Century.
  Dr. Formica is chairwoman of family practice at Saint Peter's 
University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ, and is a professor of family 
medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She 
began her family practice in Old Bridge in 1959. Denied admission by 
medical schools in the United States because they believed she would 
``just get married and have kids,'' Pam Formica got her M.D. from the 
Universita Di Roma, Faculta di Medicina e Chirugia in Rome, Italy.
  Actually, Mr. Speaker, Dr. Formica did get married and have kids. She 
also was a pioneer for women in medicine. She was the first female 
president of the Medical Society of New Jersey, and held the same 
distinction for the Middlesex County Medical Society. She is a Past 
President and current Member of the Board of Trustees of the American 
Medical Association (AMA). She serves on numerous other boards and 
commissions, and has won awards too numerous to mention here. The 
Medical Society of New Jersey has established an award in her name for 
women who actively lead the way for women's equality in the medical 
field.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a great honor for me to join in paying tribute to 
Dr. Palma Formica, a great physician, a great New Jerseyan, and a 
fighter for equal opportunities for women in education, in medicine, in 
community affairs and in all fields of endeavor. She is indeed a Woman 
of the Century.

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