Hania Ris was born Chana Wislicka in Lodz, Poland on June 15, 1913. She studied at the University of Caen (Rouen, France), from which she received a degree in physics, chemistry, and natural sciences in 1932. In 1937 Dr. Ris completed her medical training at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, where she also served as assistant in the pediatrics department of the Children's Hospital, 1937-1939.
In 1939 she came to the United States and settled in the Baltimore, Maryland area. During the next several years Dr. Ris worked in hospitals in Maryland, Ohio, and New York and was an instructor in pediatrics, primarily at Johns Hopkins Medical School (1940-1941, 1943-1949). She married Hans Ris in New York in 1947.
Dr. Ris's career in Madison, Wisconsin, began in 1951, when she formed a part-time practice in pediatrics. In 1956, Dr. Ris joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Medical School as a pediatrician. From January 1964 until its closing in June 1976, she served as medical director of the Wisconsin School for Girls.
From 1976, her work concentrated on the areas of child and adolescent health care, sex education, birth control, abortion rights, quality health care for institutionalized youth, prevention of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and nuclear disarmament. Dr. Ris served on numerous state level health committees, boards, and task forces and published many articles in her fields of specialization. She supported and lobbied for legislation in many areas: minors' rights to medical treatment at their own request, women's rights, abortion rights, access to birth control, and the prevention of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. In 1982, Dr. Ris joined the Madison Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization of physicians opposed to nuclear weapons, and she served on its steering committee. She was an active member of the Wisconsin State Democratic Party, serving as a convention delegate, and from 1984, as a member of the Platform and Resolution Committee.
In addition, Dr. Ris was an artist whose paintings won numerous awards locally.
Dr. Hania Ris died in Madison, Wisconsin, on March 25, 1998.
