The third annual Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award was presented to Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services. Dr. Bigby oversees 17 state agencies, serving in the Cabinet of Governor Deval Patrick. She has a broad range of experience as a primary care physician, professor, researcher and health policy expert.

Until her appointment as Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Bigby was the Medical Director of Community Health Programs at Brigham & Women's Hospital. She was also Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the school’s Center of Excellence in Women’s Health.

Prior to her appointment she served on many boards and expert panels including the Boston Public Health Commission, the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century, and the Minority Women’s Health Panel of Experts for the US Department of Health and Human Services. She was President of the Society of General Internal Medicine, the only national organization representing primary care internal medicine doctors, from 2003 to 2004.

Dr. Bigby holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.