Judith Fluellen, M.D. partner and COO of Women Works Media Group
Women Works Media Group is pleased to announce Judith Fluellen, M.D. has joined our organization as the COO, equity partner member and member of the board of directors.
Judith Hardy-Fluellen, M.D. is a Board Certified anesthesiologist, interior designer extraordinaire, master chef, marathon runner, mother, grandmother, and budding actress of considerable repute, but that’s just for starters…
“Dr. Flu,” as she is affectionately known to her many patients, admirers, and supporters, was the only girl among four overachieving children born to loving parents, the late Melvin and Avis Hardy. Dr. Fluellen was born at Harlem New York’s fabled Harlem Hospital before her family moved to Philadelphia, PA where she was reared and educated.
A precocious youngster who had a knack for all things science and biology, she was afforded every opportunity for advancement by her parents who sacrificed greatly and who worked tooth and nail to gird her with the finest parochial and private school educations money could buy. After graduating from Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic grade school in Philadelphia, at which church of the same name her parents were devoted parishioners for some fifty years, she attended the celebrated private girls academy, Merion Mercy Academy, where she graduated with honors and was one of just three African-American’s in her graduating class of 150 students. Coming from an all Black, inner city neighborhood, her exposure to an environment that included educators from a variety of cultures and ethnicities, and classmates of all races would prepare her to achieve excellence in any environment. That kind of multicultural exposure enabled her to build longstanding, in some cases lifelong meaningful relationships with people from all backgrounds and cultures.
Her next stop along her educational continuum was at Worcester, MA’s College of the Holy Cross, where she followed in the trailblazing shoes of her older brother, the late Gilbert Edward Hardy, Esq., who was one of the young Black geniuses who was recruited by the late Father Brooks to integrate the all white Jesuit college as profiled in the book, “The Fraternity.” (see: http://bit.ly/GilbertEdwardHardyHolyCrossFraternity). It was at Holy Cross that her love of all things science and biology was honed into a passion for the field of medicine. An outstanding pre-med major, by pursuing her dream of becoming a physician, she would go one step beyond the exceedingly high bar set for her by her mother, Avis Hardy, who was the first ever Black Director of Nursing at the nation’s first ever hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, the later which was founded by Benjamin Franklin.
Her dream became a reality when she matriculated as Thomas Jefferson University Medical College back in her home town of Philadelphia. She would study radiology while there, but it was her penchant for “puttin’ ‘em to sleep and wakin’ ‘em up,” as she puts it, that would be the raison d’etre of her focus on the anesthesiology specialty in which she would become Board Certified.
The Next Chapter
When duty and opportunity called in the mid 1980’s, Dr. Flu followed her nose and her heart to the then physician shortage area of Cartersville, GA, where she, her childhood sweetheart husband, the late Charles Fluellen, Sr., and her two toddler children, Charles, Jr. and Andre, would make their home until today.
Dr. Fluellen’s storied anesthesiology career, and the support of her loving husband, Charles, Sr., would permit her to rear her children in what she felt was the perfect urban/suburban mix – located just far enough away from the mean streets of Atlanta proper to keep them out of trouble, yet close enough for them all to appreciate and be exposed to the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement that meant so much to her.
After raising her boys to adulthood and seeing them become, respectively, an MBA from the great HBCU, Florida A&M University, and a Florida State University alumnus and NFL Defensive Tackle, it was time for Dr. Fluellen to “do her,” as they say, and doin’ her she is doing indeed.
The Denoument
As Dr. Fluellen wound down here career in medicine and looked to pursue her true personal passions, she found that her skills and talents were seemingly too numerous to harness, so, as any hypertalented individual hitting their stride would do, she reached for the stars in as many ways as there are galaxies.
As a budding actress, her debut film, “Memaw,” in which she stars in as the eponymous protagonist, Dr. Flu wowed audiences and racked up film award after film award, resulting in her being one of the most sought after new actresses on the very active Atlanta movie/TV scene and beyond. In “Memaw” Dr. Fluellen plays the role of a cancer stricken grandmother of a college age granddaughter who she raises, and whose own daughter will get to meet and to know her great-grandmother, Memaw, only through the touching, tear jerking videos she leaves behind. (see: https://bit.ly/JudithHardy-FluellenStarsAsMeMaw)
The maker of too many to-die-for delicious meals to count, Dr. Fluellen decided that the world, especially those among us with a fancy for the outstandingly delicious, would be best served if she put online videos the self-developed recipes and cooking demonstrations that have even the most discriminating critics fiending for more after tasting her cooking. Her culinary delights are found at her “Keto After 60” YouTube channel and will soon be coming to a coffee table book near you.
Proving that her hard work and indomitable spirit is not limited to the operating room, Dr. Fluellen has lent her talents to the road racing circuit to run marathon races in an effort to raise funds for leukemia awareness. Her passion for fitness is borne out of the fact that she was recently diagnosed with a rare blood born cancer, essential thrombocythemia, or ET, as it is known, which is a myeloproliferative neoplasm resulting in the overproduction of white blood cells in the bone marrow. A true champion of lukema awarenss, expect to see Dr. Flu crossing the finish line at the New York Marathon or another marathin near you soon.
The sky is truly the limit for this dedicated, multitalented provocateur who is just getting started and is just hitting her stride…
