Patricia Gussin, M.D. ’71, is a board-certified Family Medicine physician, New York Times best-selling author and co-owner of two vineyards in New Zealand.

Dr. Gussin is a graduate of Aquinas College, Columbia Business School and the Wayne State University School of Medicine. She has an honorary degree from Duquesne University, is the former chair of the board of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, a past-president of the Drug Information Association, and has served on numerous university advisory boards. After graduating with her medical degree, Dr. Gussin was an intern and pediatric resident at Tampa General Hospital, and practiced medicine in Philadelphia. She joined Johnson & Johnson in clinical research, and became the worldwide vice president of Consumer Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Gussin is the author of six thriller novels, four featuring physician Laura Nelson, and co-author (with Robert Gussin, her husband) of the nonfiction guide “What’s Next … For You?: The Gussin Guide to Big Changes, Big Decisions and Big Fun.” She and her husband own two vineyards in the Marlborough, on the south side of New Zealand. Their grapes go into Villa Maria Estates Winery, the most awarded winery in New Zealand.

In 2013, Dr. Gussin received the School of Medicine Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award, presented annually to one or more alumni who have made outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes, whose contributions to the health field in the broader sense are outstanding or for service to the Wayne State University School of Medicine.