Dr. Susanne Tropez-Sims is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. She attended Bennett College in Greensboro, NC graduating with a major in Biology/Chemistry in 1971. She then matriculated at University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill for her MD degree and graduated in 1975. Following her life long dream of becoming a pediatrician, she continued her internship and residency in pediatrics at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill, NC (She was the second minority to complete this program. The first completed his residency around 1961). Realizing there were very few minorities in academia to teach other rising minority students, she joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after receiving a Masters in Public Health along with a Preventive Medicine Fellowship and a Community Pediatric Fellowship from 1979-1982 at UNC. Her assigned duty was the Director of the Outpatient Pediatric Clinic for the Wake AHEC. Dr. Tropez-Sims became involved in addresing the problem of Child Abuse and was one of the Child Medical Examiners for the state of North Carolina. She trained physicians, police, social workers and lawyers across the state in evaluation of child abuse. Her research consisted of sexually transmitted disease in sexually abused children. She designed and implemented a program entitled “Teens with Tots”. This was a program for adolescent moms to encourage continuation of school and reduce the recidivism rate. This program was very successful.
Dr. Tropez-Sims left UNC and joined the faculty at Louisiana State University Medical Center (LSUMC) in 1988 as the Director of the Pediatric Emergency Room and subsequently, in 1989 became the Division Chief of the Ambulatory Division. The Ambulatory Division grew and became involved in the community through the school base clinics and health department clinics. During this period, Dr. Tropez-Sims was also the Maternal and Child Health Director for the New Orleans Health Department. Her research continued on issues of sexual transmitted disease and in the area of adolescents. Under her leadership, the Child Abuse Program became more organized and became an integral part of the pediatric residency and the emergency residency training. She taught assistant district attorneys and social workers how to evaluate children who have been abused and obtain more convictions of perpetrators. She received an award from the state of Louisiana Council for Child Abuse for her contribution in this area.
Dr Tropez-Sims was instrumental in improving and assuring the medical services for two school base clinics (G. W. Carver Junior/Senior High School and Booker T. Washington Junior/Senior High School) in New Orleans. Because of this program, children attended school ready to learn and missed fewer days for illnesses. In 1997, she received the first national American Academy of Pediatric Martin Ushkow Community Service Award for her work in school health.
In September of 1997, Dr. Tropez-Sims joined the faculty at Meharry Medical College as the Chairperson of the Department of Pediatrics. Since her presence, the department has become one of Meharry’s strongest departments. She directs an HIV/AIDS prevention program entitled MINDS (Moving in New Directions) in two public schools in Davidson County for the past 5 years.
In May of 2000, Dr. Tropez-Sims received The Phenomenal Bennett Woman Dr. J. Henry Sayles Outstanding Woman in Science Award from Bennett College. October 2005 was awarded the Outstanding Chairperson Award from Meharry Medical College. In 2009, Dr. Tropez-Sims was selected as a America’s Top Pediatrician by the Consumer Research Council of America and also in 2009, she was recognized in The Global Directory of Whose Who.
Dr. Tropez-Sims has served on numerous local and national organizational committees and boards and has many publications and presentations to her credit. She has served in almost all capacities in the Methodist church from organist, president of MYF to Sunday school teacher and chairperson of most committees in the local church. She is a certified lay speaker. She is married with three children and five grandchildren.
Her tips for staying healthy: Do not add any salt to your food. Always eat fresh foods and not processed foods. Read the labels to assure salt intake is less than 1500 mg daily.