Dr. Joycelyn Elders grew up in rural and segregated Arkansas. She didn’t even meet a doctor until she was 16 years old, but she heard a speech by Dr. Edith Irby Jones while she was in college and decided to become a physician. She is an Army veteran who attended medical school on the G.I. bill.
She worked in the realms of both clinical practice and research and was the first person to be board certified in pediatric endocrinology in the state of Arkansas. In 1993, she was appointed and confirmed as the fifteenth Surgeon General of the United States – the first African American and second woman to hold that position.
While she was a controversial figure during her time as Surgeon General, she was always able to spark conversation about previously taboo topics in the name of improving adolescent health.
She spoke on race and health at UH this past November where I was able to take this photo. What an honor to have such a role model here on campus!
More information is available here: https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_98.html
This week’s #DiversityInHealthcare highlight is ophthalmologist Dr. Patricia Bath.
Patricia Bath was born in 1942 in Harlem. She was inspired by Dr. Albert Schweitzer and her own family physician, Dr. Cecil Marquez, to pursue a career in medicine. She attended medical school at Howard University, had a fellowship at Columbia, and completed her residency at NYU.
The “firsts” achieved by Bath are too numerous to name, but among them are being the first African-American Ophthalmology resident at NYU, inventing the discipline of community ophthalmology, becoming the first woman on the faculty at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute, co-founding the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, and inventing the laserphaco probe and method for removing cataracts. WOW.
Dr. Patricia Bath spent her long and illustrious career working to reduce racial disparities in ophthalmic care and in doing so was able to restore sight to people who had been blind for over 30 years.
More info is available at https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_26.html
Photo source: https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/static/img/portraits/26.jpg
Throughout the fall semester, we will be highlighting #DiversityInHealthcare on our social media. This week we are focusing on Mae Jemison.
Mae Jemison is best known as the first African-American woman in space, taking part in the STS-47 mission in September of 1992.
Prior to her time at NASA, Jemison attended medical school at Cornell and worked as a general practitioner. She also served as a medical officer in the Peace Corps for two+ years. Much of her work since NASA has focused on biotechnology and furthering STEM education for children.
Dr. Jemison has an impressive career, and she is also an informative and inspirational speaker. I had the opportunity to sit front and center for her John P. McGovern Award Lecture at the 2015 Medical Library Association meeting, and it was both fun and thought-provoking.
Dr. Mae Jemison, breaking barriers – on Earth and beyond – since 1956.
More info is available at https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_168.html
Photo source: https://images.nasa.gov/details-S92-40463