Monsees Receives WashU Medicine Alumni Achievement Award

Barbara S. Monsees, MD, professor emeritus of radiology for WashU Medicine Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, was honored with an Alumni Achievement Award from the WashU Medical Center Alumni Association for her outstanding professional achievements in the field of breast imaging and her service to the community and the university.

Monsees joined the MIR faculty in 1980, and the impact of her decades-long career is still felt today. Some accomplishments include initiating and co-developing the Breast Health Center — one of the earliest multidisciplinary centers at the university — and launching the mammography van in 1986, bringing breast cancer screening to underserved areas across the region. She became the first chief of breast imaging in 1992 and was later named the inaugural Ronald and Hanna Evens Endowed Professor of Women’s Health.

Monsees served on several local and national committees to leverage her expertise and create change. She chaired the Food and Drug Administration’s National Mammography Quality Assurance Advisory Committee as it developed performance and practice guidelines under the Mammography Quality Standards Act. She also served on many committees at the university and numerous national committees and as a reviewer for a variety of journals, including the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense.

A noted teacher and leader, Monsees educated hundreds of residents and nearly 100 breast imaging fellows during her tenure. She was named a fellow of the American College of Radiology and the Society of Breast Imaging and received a Gold Medal, the society’s highest honor. She was also bestowed with a lifetime service award from the American Board of Radiology, received the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Medical Staff Association Lifetime Achievement “Master Physician” Award, was recognized by the WashU Medicine Distinguished Alumni Scholarship Program and received the Alumni Faculty Award.

Monsees earned her medical degree from WashU Medicine in 1975 and completed a pediatrics residency at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and a radiology residency at MIR.