Woman Power: A Friendship Formed in Medical School Fuels Two Careers Devoted to Women’s Health

(l-r) Drs. Janice Werbinski and Maria Bustillo at their 50th class reunion in May 2025

When Maria Bustillo, MD ’75, and Janice “Jan” Werbinski, MD ’75, enrolled at MCW in 1971, they represented two of only 10 women in a class of about 100 students. This small group of women quickly formed a close-knit circle of friends, but even within that group, Bustillo and Werbinski shared a special bond.

“Maria and I just clicked,” says Dr. Werbinski. “Part of it was that we lived close to each other as students and part of it is that we are both Catholics, but mostly we just get along really well.”

The two recall fond memories of their time at MCW: potlucks, study sessions, nights out, church services and the shared pressures of medical school. Their friendship deepened alongside experiences that would ultimately shape their careers.

In the 1970s, the feminist movement helped open more doors for women in medicine, leading to a rise in female enrollment. Still, many female students faced persistent barriers, including sexism in the classroom. Dr. Bustillo remembers one such moment from her first-year histology class.

“It was the first day of class, and the professor told us that we were going to be studying the most important organ of the body – the skin, which holds all our other organs and keeps us together,” she says. “He then throws up the first slide, and it’s a picture of a naked Playboy Bunny.”

Taken aback, she and the other women in the class walked out. “We were just so offended,” she says.

Both Drs. Werbinski and Bustillo share multiple stories about the sexism they faced as students. Yet those incidents only strengthened the pair’s resolve to succeed in the medical profession – and to do so in the field of women’s health.

Careers with National Impact

Graduation marked the beginning of two distinct careers for the best friends: Dr. Bustillo devoted herself to treating infertility and conducting research, while Dr. Werbinski concentrated on obstetrics and gynecology, and academics.

Dr. Bustillo, whose parents were both physicians from Cuba, began a rotating internship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, followed by a residency in reproductive endocrinology at the same institution. She then joined the faculty for four years, where she was part of the team that achieved the first egg donor pregnancy in the United States.

Dr. Bustillo later joined the Genetics & IVF Institute in Virginia, where she helped establish what would become Fairfax Cryobank, one of the largest sperm banks in the country. She eventually returned to academic medicine at Mount Sinai in New York before moving into private practice in Miami, Florida. She was one of the founders and a president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, as well as a board member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Currently, Dr. Bustillo says she’s “mostly retired” and living in central California.

(l-r) Drs. Marlene Melzer-Lange, Maria Bustillo and Jan Werbinski at a class reunion (ca. 1990-1995)

As a founding board member of the Society for Women’s Health Research, Dr. Bustillo advocated for the 1990 Women’s Health Equity Act (WHEA), which made it illegal to exclude women from federally funded medical research. Before WHEA, women were often left out of clinical studies – an omission that made their specific health needs invisible in medical education and clinical guidelines. Her advocacy helped pave the way for more inclusive, evidence-based care.

Dr. Werbinski completed her OB-GYN residency at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan, and soon settled in nearby Kalamazoo, where her husband had a business. She began her career serving patients in both public and private settings before assuming medical director roles at Bronson Methodist Hospital, the YWCA Sexual Assault program and Borgess Women’s Health (where she also was the chair of OB-GYN for a time).

Throughout her clinical career, Dr. Werbinski taught medical students. She developed a women’s health curriculum for internal medicine residents at Michigan State University and later joined the faculty at Western Michigan University’s medical school, where she still teaches. She also has taught courses on menopause, human sexuality and sex differences in medicine. Additionally, Dr. Werbinski founded the American College of Women’s Health Physicians to advance women’s health as a specialty and served as the president of the American Medical Women’s Association from 2022-2023.

(l-r) Drs. Mary Dufour, Jan Werbinski, Maria Bustillo, Mary Brzostowicz and Marlene Melzer-Lange gather at their 25th class reunion in 2000

Today, Dr. Werbinski works to ensure that sex and gender differences are integrated into medical education. As chair of the American Medical Women’s Association’s Sex and Gender Health Collaborative, she leads a global curriculum effort involving more than 200 medical students. Their work, covering more than 100 conditions, will be published on the ScholarRx Bricks Exchange, a platform used by more than 1.4 million students worldwide.

50 Years of Friendship

Though their careers followed different paths, Drs. Bustillo and Werbinski always stayed in touch. They would reconnect at medical school class reunions or conferences, and phone calls became a steady way to share news and support each other. Even as the years passed and their work evolved, their friendship remained a constant source of connection.

In recent years, they have had more opportunities to visit, travel together and collaborate on shared projects. Conversations pick up easily, often centered on both personal updates and professional interests. Both also sit on the Class of 1975 reunion committee and attended their 50th reunion celebration this past May. Looking back, they see the roots of their enduring friendship in their shared experience at MCW.

Graduates of the MCW Class of 1975 gather at their 50th class reunion in 2025. (l-r) Drs. Mary DuFour, Harvey Marchbein, Marlene Melzer-Lange, Stephen Hargarten, Maria Bustillo, Janice Werbinski and Mary Brzostowicz

“There were only 10 women in our class, and we became a cohesive unit,” says Dr. Werbinski. “We supported each other through everything – from tough professors to personal struggles. That foundation shaped not only our friendships but the careers we went on to build.”

“Most of what people go through in medical school is shared. When you bond with someone going through the same thing, it helps you get through it – and that connection can last a lifetime,” adds Dr. Bustillo.

– Devon McPhee