[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 60 (Monday, April 5, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E350]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING TAMPA'S HEALTH CARE HERO, DR. DANA DARIEN GLENN, IN HONOR 
                         OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

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                           HON. KATHY CASTOR

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 5, 2021

  Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Speaker, in honor of Black History 
Month, I am celebrating Tampa's health care heroes. Today I rise in 
admiration and respect for the public service and leadership of Dr. 
Dana Darien Glenn, who proudly serves our Veterans as Women's Center 
Medical Director at the James A. Haley Veterans (VA) Hospitals and 
Clinics in Tampa, FL. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1966, she relocated to 
Tampa in 1972 with her family. Her own father, Dr. Glinton Darien, 
served as a full-time staff dentist at the James A. Haley VA Hospital. 
Dr. Glenn has followed in his footsteps to serve our Veterans. Dr. 
Glenn was also influenced by her mother, who is a retired registered 
nurse. While Dr. Glenn has always had a passion for science and math, 
building a sense of community for her patients started at a young age 
when she would accompany her father, a deacon, as he visited the ill 
and shut-ins.
  The youngest of three children, she attended Hillsborough County 
Public Schools, graduating with honors from Leto High School. She then 
earned her associate's degree and graduated with honors from 
Hillsborough Community College. She completed her bachelor's degree 
with honors from the University of Florida in 1988 and her Doctor of 
Medicine degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 
School of Medicine in 1993. She returned to Florida to complete the 
Bayfront Medical Center Family Practice Program. In Tampa, she met and 
married the love of her life, Vernon Glenn, where they live with their 
two children, Alana and Theodore.
  Prior to joining James A. Haley VA Hospital, Dr. Glenn was a private 
practitioner for 10 years in Tampa. Part of that time she ran a 
practice, Glenn Family Health Center, with her husband. Her sense of 
community transitioned her from private practice to joining the James 
A. Haley VA Hospital as a full-time staff physician in 2005. She was 
inspired by the hospital's patient-aligned care team and less than 10 
years later, she would become part of the planning team to open a 
center solely dedicated to women veterans healthcare, including 
equipment, supplies and space to ensure gender-specific care. The 
United States has more than 2 million women veterans, and the number of 
women using VA health services has more than tripled over the last 20 
years. VA hospitals across the nation are adapting to serve the 
changing demographic--Dr. Glenn is part of this history of transition. 
The James A. Haley VA Hospital currently serves approximately 12,000 
female Veterans.
  Dr. Glenn is board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine 
and she is a member of the American Medical Association. Her list of 
past awards and honors include Finalist for VA Woman of the Year Award, 
Young Leader Award by the Florida Academy of Family Physicians, Charles 
Aucremann Art of Medicine Award, M.A. Barton Award for Best Medical 
Paper, Outstanding Presentation, Research Day, and Commonwealth Fund/
Bristol-Myers Squibb Fellowship in Academic Research. Her professional 
and community services include: VA National Women's Health Services 
Mini-Residency Faculty participating in national and local lectures to 
train women's health staff as well as Affiliate Assistant Professor at 
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine teaching internal medicine 
residents. She has been a volunteer speaker at numerous church-based 
community health programs focusing on women's health issues.
  Dr. Glenn is passionate about helping people achieve their highest 
level of health and wellness. She is especially encouraged about 
opportunities to effectuate positive changes in the African American 
community disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and in 
multiple chronic disease/health outcome measures as well as 
underrepresented in leadership roles in medicine.
  Her personal mission statement is based on her favorite Bible verse, 
Galatians 2:20: ``I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no 
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now 
live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and 
gave Himself up for me.''
  Madam Speaker, on behalf of a grateful nation in the midst of a 
public health crisis and the Tampa Bay community, I am proud to 
recognize the service and leadership of Dr. Dana Glenn, as well as her 
eternal optimism guided by her personal faith.

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