Antonia Coello Novello is a Puerto Rican physician and public health administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as 14th Surgeon General of the United States from 1990 to 1993. Novello was the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as Surgeon General. Novello also served as Commissioner of Health for the State of New York from 1999 to 2006. Novello has received numerous awards including more than fifty honorary degrees,was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2000,and has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Her memoir,Duty Calls:Lessons Learned from an Unexpected Life of Service,was published in 2024.
Meharry Medical College is a private historically black medical school affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Nashville,Tennessee. Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College,it was the first medical school for African Americans in the South. While the majority of African Americans lived in the South,they were excluded from many public and private racially segregated institutions of higher education,particularly after the end of Reconstruction.
Minnie Joycelyn Elders is an American pediatrician and public health administrator who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1993 to 1994. A vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps,she was the second woman,second person of color,and first African American to serve as Surgeon General.
Spelman College is a private,historically Black,women's liberal arts college in Atlanta,Georgia. It is a founding member of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary,Spelman awarded its first college degrees in 1901 and is the oldest private historically Black liberal arts institution for women.
Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) is an independent and private historically-Black medical school in Atlanta,Georgia. Originally a part of Morehouse College,the school became independent in 1981.
The Feinberg School of Medicine is the medical school of Northwestern University and is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago,Illinois. Founded in 1859,Feinberg offers a full-time Doctor of Medicine degree program,multiple dual degree programs,graduate medical education,and continuing medical education.
Dr Dorothy Lavinia Brown,also known as "Dr. D.",was an African-American surgeon,legislator,and teacher. She was the first female surgeon of African-American ancestry from the Southeastern United States. She was also the first African American female to serve in the Tennessee General Assembly as she was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives. While serving in the House of Representatives,Brown fought for women's rights and for the rights of people of color.
Helene D. Gayle is an American physician,and academic and non-profit administrator. She has been president of Spelman College since 2023. She formerly was CEO of the Chicago Community Trust,one of the nation's leading community foundations. Earlier in her career she was the director of international humanitarian organization CARE,and spent much of her career in the field of public health research in epidemiology at the CDC.
Alexa Irene Canady is a retired American medical doctor specializing in pediatric neurosurgery. She was born in Lansing,Michigan and earned both her bachelors and medical degree from the University of Michigan. After completing her residency at the University of Minnesota in 1981,she became the first black woman to become a neurosurgeon. This came after Ruth Kerr Jakoby became the first American woman to be board certified in neurosurgery in 1961.
Helen Octavia Dickens was an American physician,medical and social activist,health equity advocate,researcher,health administrator,and health educator. She was the first African-American woman to be admitted to the American College of Surgeons in 1950,and specialized in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Marilyn Hughes Gaston is a physician and researcher. She was the first black woman to direct the Bureau of Primary Health Care in the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. She is most famous for her work studying sickle cell disease (SCD).
Charles DeWitt Watts was an African-American surgeon and activist for the poor. Watts was the first surgeon of African-American ancestry in North Carolina. Earning his medical degree in 1943 from Howard University College,he was the first African-American board-certified surgeon to serve in North Carolina. After surgical training at Freedman's Hospital in Washington,D.C.,in 1949,he moved to Durham,North Carolina,in 1950 and established a clinic to provide access to medical services for the poor. Breaking the social customs of racial obstacles,he advocated for certification of African-American medical students. He also became a member of many professional colleges including the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine and the American College of Surgeons. He served as chief of surgery at Durham's Lincoln Hospital and was later one of the key figures in converting it to the Lincoln Community Health Center,a low-priced clinic for the poor.
Angella Dorothea Ferguson is an American pediatrician known for her groundbreaking research on sickle cell disease.
Clarice D. Reid is an American pediatrician born in Birmingham,Alabama,who led the National Sickle Cell Disease Program at the U.S. National Heart,Lung,and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health. She went on to become the Director of Division of Blood Diseases and Resources at NHLBI. Reid was a member of the 1985-1986 Taskforce on Black and Minority Health. She has also served as President Emeritus on the American Bridge Association's Education and Charitable Foundation,and has scored a rare perfect bridge score.
Georgia Rooks Dwelle (1884–1977) was an African-American physician in Atlanta,Georgia who specialized in obstetrics and pediatrics. When Dwelle was licensed as a physician in 1904,she was one of only three African American women physicians in the state of Georgia. Dwelle began to practice medicine at a time when Jim Crow laws and social customs in Georgia required racial segregation in medical schools,health care facilities,and medical societies. To counter the lack of medical care for African-Americans in Atlanta,Dwelle opened the Dwelle Infirmary which was the first successful private general hospital for African Americans in Atlanta,and the first obstetrical hospital for African American women in Atlanta.
Barbara Ross-Lee,D.O. is an American physician,academic,and the first African-American woman to serve as dean of a U.S. medical school;she is also known as the sister of Diana Ross along with being the aunt of actress Tracee Ellis Ross,and singer-songwriters Rhonda Ross Kendrick and Evan Ross. She majored in biology and chemistry at Wayne State University,graduating in 1965. Then,in 1969,she entered Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine. Ross-Lee then went on to open her own private family practice,teach as a professor,and hold other positions within the medical community. In 1993,she was elected as the first woman dean of a medical school,at Ohio University's Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. She has earned several awards and honors for her work and accomplishments.
Rosalyn P. Scott is an American thoracic surgeon known for her work in education and for being the first African-American woman to become a thoracic surgeon.
Sophia Bethena Jones was a British North America-born American medical doctor and the first woman of African descent to graduate from the University of Michigan Medical School. She founded the Nursing Program at Spelman College,where she was the first black faculty member.
Effie O'Neal Ellis was an American pediatrician,child medical care consultant,and an activist for infant health and maternal education. Ellis was the first African American woman to hold an executive position in the American Medical Association. In 1989,Ellis was inducted to the Chicago Women's Hall of Fame for her efforts in improving the lives of the black community and helping to lower infant mortality rates.
