Jacqueline Messite, M.D.

The late Jacqueline Messite, M.D. brought a wealth of professional experience. knowledge, wisdom, and passion to Care for the Homeless where she served as a member of the Board of Directors in 1996.

Jackie, as she insisted on being called, was a graduate of New York University (B.A.) and the State University of New York/Downstate Medical Center (M.D.). She served as the director of the occupational health program for the State of New York, and later as the Program Consultant for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for Region II of the Public Health Service. In 1987, Jackie was elected a Fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine and served as a member of the Committee on Public Health and the Subcommittee on Environmental Health, and later as the Executive Director of Public Health of the New York Academy of Medicine. A Diplomate of the American Board of Preventive Medicine, Jackie held the position of Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine at New York University School of Medicine and on the faculty of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, CUNY, and State University of New York Health Science Center in Brooklyn.

Jackie was active in many professional societies and a prolific author. She wrote on many topics, among them women and work, reproductive toxicology in the workplace, and occupational safety and health in dentistry. But aside from her impressive professional career, Jackie was clearly defined by her curiosity, forthrightness, and dedication to her profession. She was always ready to discuss any topic, and tell you what she had read recently about it. Care for the Homeless benefited greatly from the brought wise counsel, insight, and great efficiency she brought to her stints as Chair of the Board's Personnel Committee and of its Continuous Quality Improvement Committee. She was also a pioneer who had to overcome many barriers that have been significantly lowered because of the struggle of those in her generation. At a time when there were few female medical students, Jackie had to endure the scorn and attempts at humiliation by her professors and fellow students. At her funeral, held on Martin Luther King Day, Jackie was reported to have told her daughters, "I will not accept limits because I am a woman or because I am Jewish. If anyone looks down on me for either, they are ignorant, and it is their loss."

How privileged and enriched we are at Care for the Homeless to have been the beneficiary of Jackie's very special gifts.