This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(February 2016)

African-American women have been practicing medicine informally in the contexts ofmidwifery andherbalism for centuries. Those skilled as midwives, likeBiddy Mason, worked both asslaves and as free women in their trades. Others, likeSusie King Taylor andAnn Bradford Stokes, served asnurses in theCivil War. Formal training and recognition ofAfrican-American women began in 1858 whenSarah Mapps Douglass was the first black woman to graduate from a medical course of study at an American university.^[1] Later, in 1864Rebecca Crumpler became the first African-American woman to earn amedical degree. The first nursing graduate wasMary Mahoney in 1879. The firstdentist,Ida Gray, graduated from theUniversity of Michigan in 1890. It was not until 1916 thatElla P. Stewart became the first African-American woman to become a licensedpharmacist.Inez Prosser in 1933 became the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate inpsychology. Two women,Jane Hinton andAlfreda Johnson Webb, in 1949, were the first to earn adoctor of veterinary medicine degree.Joyce Nichols, in 1970, became the first woman to become aphysician's assistant.

African-American women have continued to make major contributions to the field of medicine throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Dr. Marilyn Hughes Gaston, who in 1986 became the first African-American woman to direct a public health service bureau, led groundbreaking research on sickle cell disease that transformed federal screening programs for newborns. Dr. Joycelyn Elders became the first African-American woman to serve as U.S. Surgeon General in 1993, advocating for comprehensive health education and public health reform. Dr. Mae Jemison, a physician and astronaut, made history in 1992 as the first Black woman to travel into space, integrating her medical training with scientific exploration. In recent decades, African-American women have also led major institutions—Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice became the first woman president and dean of Morehouse School of Medicine in 2014, while Dr. Ala Stanfordfounded the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium in 2020 to address racial disparities in pandemic care. Their achievements reflect a long legacy of resilience and innovation among African-American women in medicine, who continue to expand access, equity, and representation in health care today.

This is analphabetical list of African-American women who have made significant firsts and contributions to the field of medicine in their own centuries.

A

• Caroline V. Still Anderson set up a successful clinic and dispensary inPhiladelphia.^[2]

B

• Anna DeCosta Banks, who graduated nursing school in 1891, had a long and successful career as a nurse in both the 19th and 20th centuries.^[3]
• Lucy Hughes Brown in 1894 became the first African American woman physician in North Carolina,^[4] and then later in the decade, the first inSouth Carolina.^[5]
• Mary Louise Brown graduated fromHoward University Medical School in 1898 and went on to dopost-doctorate work inEdinburgh, Scotland.^[6]

C

• Consuelo Clark-Stewart graduated fromBoston University School of Medicine in 1884^[7] and was the first African-American woman to practice in Ohio.
• Rebecca J. Cole in 1867, became the second African-American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States and the first to graduate from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, now known as theMedical College of Pennsylvania.^[8][9]
• Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler in 1864 was the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.^[10]

D

• Sarah Mapps Douglass became the first woman to complete a medical course of study at an American university in 1858 when she graduated from the Ladies' Institute of the Pennsylvania Medical University.^[11]
• Juan Bennett Drummond, 1888 graduate of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, became the first African American woman doctor licensed inMassachusetts.^[12]

E

• Matilda Evans in 1897 became the first African American woman to earn a medical license in South Carolina.^[13]

F

• Sara Iredell Fleetwood graduated from the Freedmen's Hospital Nursing Training School in 1896.^[14]
• Louise Celia Fleming in 1891 became the first African American woman to enroll in the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia.^[15]

  

• Martha Minerva Franklin graduated from nursing school in 1897 and worked to improve racial equality in nursing.^[16]
• Sarah Loguen Fraser in 1879 became the first woman and African American to graduate from the Syracuse College of Medicine and became the fourth African American woman to become a doctor.^[17]

G

• Artishia Garcia Gilbert in 1898 became the first African American woman to register as a licensed physician inKentucky.^[18]
• Mildred Wilborn Gildersleeve served as a nurse and midwife in Florida during the Reconstruction Era. Born enslaved in 1858, she was inducted into theFlorida Women's Hall of Fame in 2019.^[19]
• Ida Gray became the first African American woman to become adentist when she graduated from the University of Michigan in 1890.^[20]
• Eliza Ann Grier in 1897 became the first African-American woman to practice medicine in the state ofGeorgia.^[21][22]

H

• Julia R. Hall in 1892 became the first African American woman to work as a resident in thegynecology clinic ofHoward University.^[23]
• Michelle F. Henry is an African-Americandermatologist, dermatologic surgeon, and clinical educator. She is the founder of Skin & Aesthetic Surgery of Manhattan and a clinical instructor of dermatology atWeill Cornell Medical College.

J

• Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson was an American physician and the first woman to be licensed as a physician in the U.S. state ofAlabama.^{[24][25][26][27]}
• Sarah Garland Boyd Jones in 1893 became the first woman physician licensed inVirginia.^[28]
• Sophia B. Jones was a Canadian-born American medical doctor, who founded the nursing program atSpelman College. She was the first black woman to graduate from the University of Michigan Medical School and the first black faculty member at Spelman.^[29]

M

• Mary Mahoney was the first African-American to graduate from nursing training, graduating in 1879.^[30]
• Biddy Mason, a slave, worked as amidwife and later set up a day care and a nursery inLos Angeles.^[31]
• Alice Woodby McKane the first African-American woman to practice medicine in the state of Georgia.^[32]
• Verina Morton-Jones in 1888 became the first woman to be licensed as a physician inMississippi.^[33][34]

P

• Georgia E. Lee Patton, 1893 medical school graduate who went on to practice medicine inAfrica.^[32]
• Beulah Wright Porter, in 1897 became the first African American woman physician inIndianapolis.^[35]

R

• Sarah Parker Remond earned her medical license in 1871 inItaly.^[11]
• Emma Ann Reynolds was a teacher who had a desire to address the health needs of her community. Refused entrance to nurses training schools because of racism, she influenced the creation of Provident Hospital in Chicago and was one of its first four nursing graduates. Continuing her education, Reynolds became a medical doctor serving at posts in Texas, Louisiana and Washington, D.C. before permanently settling in Ohio and completing her practice there.^[36]
• Harriet Rice in 1887 was the first African American to graduate fromWellesley College.^[37]

S

• Eunice P. Shadd was the first African-American woman to graduate fromHoward University College of Medicine.^[38]
• Nannette Stafford, 1878 medical school graduate fromHoward University.^[39]
• Susan Smith McKinney Steward in 1870 became the third African-American woman to become a physician and the first to graduate from aNew York medical school when she graduated from theNew York Medical College for Women.^[40][9]
• Ann Bradford Stokes in January 1863 was enlisted as a ships' nurse in theUnited States Navy.^[41]
• 2nd Lt. NurseAbbie Sweetwine of 494th Medical Group of theUnited States Air Force ran triage at the 1952Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash based on her military field experience. The success of the team's response is credited with inspiring the development of the use ofparamedics in Britain.^[42]

T

• Susie King Taylor, firstAfrican-American to serve as aU.S. Army Nurse in theCivil War.^[43]
• Sojourner Truth worked as a nurse while she was enslaved. Later, she advocated for formal training.^[44][45]

W

• Emma Wakefield-Paillet in 1898 became the first African American woman physician inLouisiana.^[46]
• Georgia E. L. Patton Washington in 1893 became the first woman to earn a medical degree from Meharry Medical College.^[47]
• Marie Imogene Williams in 1896 became the first African American female dentist to graduate from Howard University's dental school.^{[48][49][50][51]}
• Alice Woodby McKane in 1892 earned her medical degree and later went on to open the first hospital inMonrovia, Liberia in 1895 with her husband,Cornelius McKane.^[52]

#

• 25th Station Hospital Unit, an all African-American unit as part of theArmy Nurse Corps, was the first black medical unit sent overseas duringWorld War II.^[53]

A

• Lucile Adams-Campbell in 1983 became the first African-American woman to earn aPh.D. inepidemiology in the United States. In 1995 as director of theHoward University Cancer Center in Washington D.C., she became the first Black woman to head a cancer center.^[54]
• Clara Adams-Ender in 1967 became the first woman to be awarded theUnited States Army'sExpert Field Medical Badge.^[55]
• Virginia Alexander was a public health official and physician in Philadelphia who founded the Aspiranto Health Home in 1931 for the poorest members of her community.^[56]
• Ludie Clay Andrews became the first registered nurse inGeorgia in 1920.^[57]
• Byllye Avery in 1984 founded theNational Black Women's Health Project.^[58]

B

• Margaret E. Bailey in 1970 became the first African American nurse to attain the rank of colonel in the United States Army.^[55]
• Cynthia Barnes-Boyd was anacademic administrator,professor, andnurse. She was the director of the Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Health Partnerships at theUniversity of Illinois Chicago (UIC), and executive director of the University of Illinois Mile Square Health Center.^[59]
• Edwina Margaret Barnett in 1973 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) fromJohns Hopkins University School of Medicine. (The other wasPatricia Ann Jenkins.)^[60]
• Patricia Era Bath, first African American to complete a residency inophthalmology.^[10]
• Sandra Dian Battis in 1975 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of California at Davis School of Medicine. (The other wasDiane Loren Pemberton.)^[61]
• Lillian Beard is a pediatrician and has served as a spokesperson for theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics.^[62]
• Sabrina Ann Benjamin in 1981 was the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (Maryland).^[63]
• Elizabeth Bertram in 1977 became the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromSouthern Illinois University School of Medicine.^[64]
• Hattie Bessent in 1976 became the first African American to serve as graduate dean at Vanderbilt University Graduate School of Nursing.^[65]
• JudyAnn Bigby served as director of the Harvard Medical School Center of Excellence in Women's health.^[66]
• Bessie Blount Griffin was awriter,nurse,physical therapist,inventor andforensic scientist.^[67]
• Juliann Bluitt Foster became the first African American full-time faculty at the Northwestern University Dental School in 1967.^[68]
• Etnah Rochelle Boutte was a pharmacist and the only African American woman elected to the New York City Cancer Commission in 1951.^[69]
• Marcia Clair Bowling in 1978 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Massachusetts Medical School. (The other wasVernette Jones Bee.)^[70]
• Nancy Boyd-Franklin was named distinguished psychologist of the year by theAssociation of Black Psychologists in 1994.^[71]
• Goldie D. Brangman-Dumpson was one of the surgical team atHarlem Hospital that savedMartin Luther King Jr. in 1958.^[44]
• Clara Brawner was the only African American woman practicing medicine in theMemphis area in the mid 1950s.^[72]
• Mary Elizabeth Britton in 1904 became the first African American woman licensed as a physician inLexington, Kentucky.^[73]
• Rochelle A. Broome in 1983 was one of the first African Americans to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromNortheastern Ohio University College of Medicine. (The others wereMargo Shamberger,Yvonne A. Patterson, andJohn D. Lewis.)^[74]

• Dorothy Lavinia Brown was the first African American woman working in general surgery residency in the Southern United States, where she started in 1948.^[75]
• Edna C. Robinson Brown was the first African-American woman to practice dentistry inCambridge, Massachusetts. She began her practice in 1916 as the only African-American woman dentist in New England.^[76]
• Lorna K. Brown was one of the first two African-American women to graduate fromCase Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1968 (the other wasDoris A. Evans)^[9]
• Zora Kramer Brown served on the National Cancer Advisory Board between 1991 and 1998 and was the first African American woman to hold that position.^[77]
• Carrie E. Bullock, aChicago nurse, worked to promote theNational Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN).^[78]
• Carol E. Burnett was the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromAlbert Einstein College of Medicine ofYeshiva University.^[79]
• Prudence Burns Burrell was one of the small number of African American nurses in theArmy Nurse Corps during World War II.^[80]

C

• Barbara McDonald Calderon was the first public health nurse inIowa.^[81]

  

• Lori Margaret Campbell in 1983 was one of the first two African Americans, and the first African-American woman, to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. (The first African-American man who graduated at the same time wasPaul Jeffrey Smith.)^[82][83]
• Alexa Canady is the first African-American woman to become a neurosurgeon and practiced as a pediatric neurosurgeon.^[84]
• Denise L. Capel in 1979 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Utah School of Medicine. (The other wasMarjorie S. Coleman.)^[85]
• Mary Elizabeth Carnegie, worked as a clinical instructor and dean of the nursing school ofFlorida A&M University.^[86]
• Joye Maureen Carter in 1992 became the first African American in the United States to hold the position of Chief Medical Examiner (in DC).^[87]
• Frances Justina Cherot in 1954 was the first African American to earn aDoctor of Medicine from theState University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn^[88]
• May Edward Chinn in 1926 became the first African American woman to hold an internship atHarlem Hospital.^[89]
• Cora LeEthel Christian, who also worked in theVirgin Islands, became the first African American woman to earn her medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in 1971.^[90]
• Donna Christian-Christensen, in 1997 became the first woman physician and first African-American physician to serve in the United States Congress.^[43]
• June Jackson Christmas served as the New York City Commissioner of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Alcoholism Services (1972-1980).^[91]
• Lillian Atkins Clark was chief resident at the Douglass Hospital inPhiladelphia starting in 1924.^[92]
• Mamie Phipps Clark was a psychologist who worked on research regarding black children and education.^[93]
• Patience Hodges Claybon in 1974 was the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Alabama School of Medicine.^[94]
• Maceola L. Cole in 1958 was the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine degree fromSaint Louis University School of Medicine.^[95]
• Beverly Coleman in 1987 was the first African-American woman appointed full professor ofRadiology at theUniversity of Pennsylvania^[96]
• Marjorie S. Coleman in 1979 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Utah School of Medicine. (The other wasDenise L. Capel.)^[85]
• Mattie E. Coleman in 1932, an African American physician, became the first graduate of the dental program at Meharry Medical College.^[97]
• Viola Mary Johnson Coleman was the first African-American female physician to practice medicine inMidland, Texas.^[98]
• Anna Bailey Coles was the founding dean ofHoward University's College of Nursing, created in 1969.^[99]
• Natalear R. Collins in 1981 was one of the first two African Americans to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theEast Carolina University School of Medicine. (The other wasBrenda Mills Klutz.)^[63]
• M. E. Thompson Coppin was the 10th African American woman to become a medical doctor in the United States.^[100]
• Patricia Cowings was hired to work as apsychophysiologist at NASA in 1978.^[101]
• Sadye Curry in 1972 became the first African American womangastroenterologist.^[102]
• Mary Francis Hill Coley in 1930 became amidwife who delivered both black and white babies and as well as delivered more than 3,000 babies

D

• Darlene Dailey in 1978 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromVanderbilt University. (The other wasJanis Adelaide Jones.)^[103]
• Phyllis Mae Dailey was an American nurse and officer who became the first African-American woman either to serve in the United States Navy or to become a commissioned Naval officer.^[104]
• Donna P. Davis in 1975 became the first African American physician in the United States Navy.^[105]
• Frances Elliott Davis in 1919 became the first African American nurse officially recognized by theAmerican Red Cross.^[106]
• Bessie Delany, who graduated from theColumbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery in 1923 became the second African American woman to be licensed as a dentist in New York State.^[107]
• Clotilde Dent Bowen was apsychiatrist who was the first African-American woman to graduate in medicine fromOhio State University (in 1947), the first Black physician to hold a military commission, and the first woman commander of a U.S. military hospital. Bowen was also the first African-American woman to reach the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army.^[108]
• Edith DeVoe was the second Black woman admitted to serve in theUnited States Navy Nurse Corps duringWorld War II, the first Black nurse to be admitted to the regular Navy, and was the first Black nurse to serve in the Navy outside the mainland United States.^[109]
• Helen O. Dickens, in 1950 became the first African-American woman to become part of theAmerican College of Surgeons.^[43]
• Janice Douglas in 1984 became the first woman to hold the rank of professor of medicine atCase Western Reserve University School of Medicine.^[110]
• Lillian Singleton Dove, who graduated fromMeharry Medical College in 1917, may have been one of the first African American woman surgeons. She also wrote regular news columns about health in theChicago Defender.^[32]
• Rhetaugh Graves Dumas in 1981 was the first African American to be named dean of theUniversity of Michigan School of Nursing. Also in 1976, she was the first woman, first African American, and first nurse to serve as deputy director of theNational Institute for Mental Health (NIMH)^[111][112]
• Georgia Dwelle in 1906 became the first African-American woman to practice medicine inAtlanta,Georgia; and in 1920, established the first general hospital for African Americans in Georgia.^[113][114]

E

• Ruth Marguerite Easterling was an American physician andpathologist who worked withWilliam Augustus Hinton to develop the Hinton test forsyphilis. She also served on the staff of the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital in Alabama, and was director of laboratories at the Cambridge Massachusetts City Hospital.^[115]
• Lena F. Edwards was a physician who helped low income and migrant workers. In 1964, she was the first African American woman to receive thePresidential Medal of Freedom.^[116]
• Willarda V. Edwards is the first African-American woman to serve as the president of the Baltimore Medical Society.^[117]
• Joycelyn Elders was the first African American appointed asSurgeon General of the United States in 1993.^[30]
• Effie O'Neal Ellis in 1970 became the first African American woman to work as an administrator at theAmerican Medical Association.^[118]
• Josephine English was an Americangynecologist who was the first African-American woman to open a private practice inNew York.^[119]
• Anna Cherrie Epps in 1969 became the first African American woman to work as a professor at theTulane University School of Medicine.^[120]
• Roselyln P. Epps worked as a professor of pediatrics and child health at Howard University, starting in 1981.^[121]
• Doris A. Evans was one of the first two African-American women to graduate fromCase Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1968 (the other wasLorna K. Brown)^[9][122]
• Lydia Ashburne Evans was an early African American physician who worked in Chicago.^[123]

F

• Dorothy Celeste Boulding Ferebee was a physician and civil rights activist.^[124]
• Angelina Dorothea Ferguson, pediatrician and the first associate vice-president for health affairs atHoward University.^[125] She was also known for her work withsickle cell anemia.^[120]
• Vernice Ferguson in 1981 was elected president of the American Academy of Nursing.^[126]
• Ella Mae Ferneil was the first African American registered nurse in the state ofCalifornia.^[127]
• Ada Fisher in 1975 was the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Wisconsin.^[128]
• Kathryn Haley Flangin was the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Texas Southwestern Medical Center atDallas, Texas.^[129]
• Loma K. Flowers in 1968 was one of the first two women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromCase Western Reserve University School of Medicine. (The other wasDoris A. Evans.)^[122]
• Debra Holly Ford became the first African American woman certified in colon and rectal surgery in 1996.^[130]
• Justina Laurena Carter Ford in 1902 became the first African American woman to earn a medical license inColorado.^[131]
• Janice Marie Fox was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theMichigan State University College of Human Medicine. (The other wasJudith Ann Ingram.)^[129]
• Yvette Fay Francis-McBarnette graduated fromYale School of Medicine in 1950 and was the second African American woman admitted to the school.^[132]
• Dolores Mercedes Franklin in 1974 became the first African American woman to graduate from theHarvard School of Dental Medicine.^[133]
• Johnnie Paris Frazier in 1976 was one of the first two African-American women (and one African-American man) to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromTexas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine. The other two wereStella Pinkney Jones andCharles Edward Mathis, III.)^[134]
• Melissa Freeman was a physician based at theBeth Israel Medical Center. She developed the use ofmethadone to treat heroin addiction, ran a methadone maintenance program in New York, and mentored young doctors.^[135][136]
• Clara Frye was a nurse and inventor who received a patent for a combination bed andbedpan in 1907.^[137]

G

• Vanessa Northington Gamble is a physician who chaired theTuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee in 1996.^{[138][139][140]}
• Isabella Garnett and her husband, Arthur Butler, founded the first hospital in the city ofEvanston, Illinois that would serve African-American patients.^[141]
• Jessie G. Garnett in 1919 became the first woman to graduate from Tufts Dental School.^[142]

  

• Marilyn Hughes Gaston, in 1990 becomes the first black woman doctor appointed director of the Health Resources and Services Administration's Bureau of Primary Health Care.^[10]
• Wilina Ione Gatson in 1960 became the first African American graduate of the University of Texas nursing school.^[143]
• Fannie Gaston-Johansson in 1998 earned full professorship and tenure atJohns Hopkins School of Nursing, the first African American woman to earn that position.^[144]
• Hughenna L. Gauntlett in 1951 was the first African-American woman to earn a degree fromLoma Linda University School of Medicine and in 1968 became the first African-American woman to be certified by theAmerican Board of Surgery (ABS).^[145][146]
• Helene Doris Gayle, in 1995 becomes the first woman and African-American appointed as director of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention at the US CDC.^[43]
• Florence S. Gaynor became the first African American woman to "head a major teaching hospital" in 1971.^[147]
• Mary Keys Gibson in 1907 became the first African American in the Southern United States to earn a nursing certificate.^[148]
• Zenobia Gilpin in 1934 was the first African-American woman doctor on the staff of Children's Memorial Clinic inRichmond, Virginia.^[149]
• Carol Coleman Gray was the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Texas Medical School at San Antonio.^[129]
• Deborah Green was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Colorado School of Medicine. (The other wasLaRae H. Washington.)^[61]
• Margaret E. Grigsby was the first African-American woman to become a fellow of theAmerican College of Physicians and the first woman to preside over a major medical division atHoward University Hospital.^[150]
• Alyce Chenault Gullattee was apsychiatrist, medical schoolprofessor,activist, and expert onaddiction. She was a faculty member in the psychiatry department atHoward University College of Medicine for over fifty years.^[151]
• Lucille C. Gunning was an African-American pediatrician and medical services administrator who became a specialist in the treatment of children's cancer and the director of pediatric rehabilitation atHarlem Hospital.^[152][153]

H

• Mamie Odessa Hale was nurse and teacher ofmidwives inArkansas.^[154]
• Millie E. Hale in 1916 foundedMillie E. Hale Hospital with her husband,John Henry Hale, M.D., inNashville, Tennessee, the first year-round hospital for African Americans in the city.^[155]
• Beatrix McCleary Hamburg in 1948 became the first African American woman to graduate from theYale School of Medicine.^[156]
• Jean L. Harris in 1955 is the first African American woman to earn a medical degree from theMedical College of Virginia.^[157]
• Maxine Hayes is an American public health expert who was the State Health Officer forWashington state from 1998 until 2013.^[158]
• Eve Higginbotham in 1994 became the first African American woman chair of a department ofophthalmology in a university. (University of Maryland School of Medicine inBaltimore)^[159]
• Jane Hinton in 1949 is one of the first of two African American women to become a doctor ofveterinary medicine.^[160]
• Lillian Holland Harvey was the dean of theTuskegee University School of Nursing for 30 years.^[44]
• Sandra Cavanaugh Holley in 1988 became the first African American president of theAmerican Speech–Language–Hearing Association.^[161]
• Laura Holloway Yergan was a public health nurse and nursing educator who often worked internationally, in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean.
• Carol Jean Hubbard in 1982 was the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromWright State University School of Medicine.^[63]
• Alberta Hunter earned her practical nurse's license at age 62 in 1957 and worked at theNew York CityRoosevelt IslandGoldwater Memorial Hospital for 20 years as a nurse.^[162]
• Gertrude Cora Teixeria Hunter was the first director for Health Services forHead Start.^[163]
• M. Deborrah Hyde in 1982 was the first female and African American to complete a neurosurgery residency atCase Western University. Hyde is also the second African-American woman certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery.^[164][165]

I

• Judith Ann Ingram was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theMichigan State University College of Human Medicine. (The other wasJanice Marie Fox.)^[129]
• Eleanor Lutia Ison-Franklin was the first African American woman to earn a position as a "major administrative officer" atHoward University School of Medicine.^[166]

J

• Alma N. Jackson in 1945 became the first African American woman commissioned as a nurse for theUnited States Public Health Service.^[167]
• Anna Louise James, in 1908 was the first black woman to become licensed as a pharmacist inConnecticut.^[168]
• Grace Marilynn James, in 1953 became one of two of the first African American women to serve on the faculty of a medical school in theAmerican South.^[169]
• Tyshawn M. James in 1989 became the first African American to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromMarshall University School of Medicine (West Virginia).^[170]
• Mildred Faye Jefferson in 1951 became the first African American woman to earn a medical degree from Harvard Medical School.^[145]
• Mae C. Jemison, first African-American woman astronaut, is also a physician.^[30]
• Patricia Ann Jenkins in 1973 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) fromJohns Hopkins University School of Medicine. (The other wasEdwina Margaret Barnett.)^[60]
• Renee Rosalind Jenkins in 1989 became the first African American president of the Society for Adolescent Medicine and in 2007, became the first African American president of theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics.^[171]
• Eddie Bernice Johnson in 1992 became the first registered nurse in theUnited States Congress^[172]
• Gladys L. Johnson in 1982 became the first African American womanoral and maxillofacial surgeon.^[173]
• Linda Dianne Johnson in 1978 became the first African American woman optometrist in Mississippi.^[174]
• Mattiedna Johnson played a role in curingscarlet fever in the 1940s.^[175]
• Hazel W. Johnson-Brown in 1979 became the first African American chief of theArmy Nurse Corps.^[55]
• Edith Irby Jones in 1948 became the first African-American student to attend the University of Arkansas School of Medicine (now theUniversity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) and in 1985 became the first woman to be elected as president of theNational Medical Association.^[176]
• Janis Adelaide Jones in 1978 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromVanderbilt University. (The other wasDarlene Dailey.)^[103]
• Marjorie Earline Jones in 1960 was one of the first three African Americans, and the first African-American woman, to earn aDoctor of Medicine degree from theUniversity of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/New Jersey Medical School. (The others wereAlbert Paul Knott andDavid Roland Snead.)^[79]
• Stella Pinkney Jones in 1976 was one of the first two African-American women (and one African-American man) to earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromTexas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine. The other two wereJohnnie Paris Frazier andCharles Edward Mathis, III.)^[134]
• Vernette Jones Bee in 1978 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Massachusetts Medical School. (The other wasMarcia Clair Bowling.)^[70]

K

• Elizabeth Lipford Kent in 1955 became the first African American nurse to earn a doctorate in public health.^[177]
• Brenda Mills Klutz in 1981 was one of the first two African Americans to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theEast Carolina University School of Medicine. (The other wasNatalear R. Collins.)^[63]
• Francis M. Kneeland established her own practice as a physician inMemphis, Tennessee in 1907.^[178]

L

• Henrietta Lacks, in 1951 was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer, and whose cancer cells were cultivated without her or her family's knowledge or consent, are the source of theHeLa cell line, the firstimmortalized human cell line.^[179]
• Janice C. Lark in 1975 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of New York at Stonybrook. (The other isMitchelene J. Morgan.)^[180]
• Nella Larsen worked as a nurse inNew York City and for a year at theTuskegee Institute while in her 20s. Following a divorce and in need of income, Larsen resumed her nursing career and worked for 20 years at variousManhattan hospitals.^[181]
• Agnes D. Lattimer, pediatrician, did her residency at Cook County Hospital in 1960. In 1986, Lattimer was appointed as the medical director ofCook County Hospital, making her the first African-American woman medical director of a major hospital.^[182][183]
• Margaret Morgan Lawrence was the first African-American woman to become a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in the United States^[184]
• Jemima Belle Lawson in 1920 became the first African American to earn the title ofregistered nurse inBell County, Texas.^[185]
• Catharine Deaver Lealtad in 1915 became the first African American to graduate fromMacalester College, and gained her medical qualification from theUniversity of Paris. She specialized in pediatrics and undertook humanitarian work.^{[186][187][188]}
• Nancy Leftenant-Colon in March 1948 became the first African American in the Regular Army Nurse Corps.^[189]
• Vivian M. Lewis in 1959 became the first African American woman to earn a medical degree from theUniversity of Oklahoma College of Medicine.^[190]
• Diane Lindsay who served in the Army Nurse Corps became the first African American nurse to earn theSoldier's Medal for Heroism.^[55]
• Ruth Smith Lloyd was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in anatomy.^[191]
• Myra Adele Logan in 1943 was the first woman to performopen-heart surgery.^[192]
• Marie B. Lucas was a physician and one of the earliest women to practice medicine inWashington, D.C.^[193]
• Hulda Margaret Lyttle was the first African American to pass the State ofTennessee's nursing license exam.^[194]

M

• Audrey Forbes Manley, in 1988, became the first African American woman to become the assistant surgeon general of the U.S.^[195]
• Shirley F. Marks is an American psychiatrist. She was the secondAfrican-American woman to graduate fromHarvard Medical School.
• Ethel Maynard was a politician, activist, andregistered nurse who served in theArizona House of Representatives as a member of theDemocratic Party. She was thefirst black woman to serve in theArizona Legislature.
• Barbara Martin McArthur in 1976 created the first nurseepidemiology program in the US.^[196]
• Pearl McBroom developed new ways of observing changes in coronary blood vessel tissue.^[79]
• Ernest Mae McCarroll in 1946 became the first black physician to work at the Newark City Hospital.^[197]
• Janice C. McIntosh in 1974 was the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromPennsylvania State University College of Medicine. (At the same time, four African-American men earned their M.D. degrees.)^[198]
• Gertrude Elizabeth Curtis McPherson in 1904 became the first black woman to pass the New York State Board of Dentistry.^[20]
• Mary E. Merritt became the first African-American licensed nurse inKentucky.^[199]
• Marie Metoyer in 1951 became the first African American woman to graduate as a medical doctor fromCornell University.^[200]
• Edith Mitchell was a retiredBrigadier general of theUnited States Air Force and anoncologist. She was clinical professor of medicine and medical oncology atThomas Jefferson University.^[201]
• Jane Evelyn Mitchell, one of the first African American registered nurses inDelaware.^[202]
• Janet L. Mitchell was an American physician known for her advances in perinatalHIV/AIDS treatment.
• Mildred Mitchell-Bateman in 1962 became the first woman to head a state department of mental health. (West Virginia)^[203]
• Mitchelene J. Morgan in 1975 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of New York at Stonybrook. (The other isJanice C. Lark.)^[180]

N

• Helen E. Nash in 1949 was the first African-American woman to join the medical staff atWashington University School of Medicine, and the first African-American woman to join the staff ofSt. Louis Children's Hospital. Nash helped integrate St. Louis Children's Hospital and worked on reducinginfant mortality.^{[204][205][206]}
• Joyce Nichols became the first woman educated formally as aPhysician Assistant in 1970.^[43]
• Eva M. Noles in 1940 became the first African American person to graduate from the E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital School of Nursing.^[207]

  

O

• Estelle Massey Osborne was the first African American to earn her master's degree in nursing.^[44]
• Lucy Oxley was the first African American to earn aDoctor of Medicine from theUniversity of Cincinnati College of Medicine.^[208]

P

• Doreen P. Palmer was the first woman to head the gastroenterology department in a hospital.^[82]
• Thelma Patten Law in 1955 was the first African American woman to enter the Harris County Medical Society.^[209]
• Margaret M. Patterson-Townsend in 1992 opened the first successfulsleep disorder clinic owned and operated by an African American woman.^[210]
• Yvonne A. Patterson in 1983 was one of the first African Americans to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromNortheastern Ohio University College of Medicine. (The others wereMargo Shamberger,Rochelle A. Broome, andJohn D. Lewis.)^[74]
• Sarah Ewell Payton in 1962 became the first African American woman certified by theAmerican Board of Radiology.^[211]
• Rose Marie Pegues-Perkins was one of the first African American x-ray technicians.^[212]
• Diane Loren Pemberton in 1975 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of California at Davis School of Medicine. (The other wasSandra Dian Battis.)^[61]
• Audrey S. Penn was elected President of theAmerican Neurological Association in 1994 and was the first African-American woman to serve as an (acting) director of an Institute of theNational Institutes of Health (NIH).^[213]
• Lucille Norville Perez is an American physician known for her work insubstance abuse andHIV/AIDS prevention.
• Muriel Petioni in 1974 founded the Susan Smith McKinney Steward Medical Society for Women, professional organization for African American doctors.^[214]
• Petra Pinn in 1923 was elected president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN).^[215]
• Vivian Pinn in 1991 became the first woman appointed the director of the office of research on women's health at theNational Institutes of Health.^[43]
• Elinor Powell was aWorld War II nurse working for the Army who defiedanti-miscegenation laws.^[216]
• Inez Prosser in 1933 became the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in psychology.^[217]
• Deborah Prothrow-Stith in 1987 became the youngest person and the first woman to serve as the commissioner of public health in Massachusetts.^[218]

R

• Della H. Raney became the first African American nurse in theArmy Nurse Corps when she was accepted in 1941.^[219]

  

• Rosalie A. Reed in 1973 became the first black veterinarian to work at a major zoo in the United States.^[220]
• Theresa Greene Reed in 1968 became the first African American woman to work as anepidemiologist.^[60]
• Clarice Reid is anAmericanpediatrician born inBirmingham, Alabama, who led the NationalSickle Cell Disease Program at the U.S.National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at theNational Institutes of Health.^[221]
• Estelle B. Richman in 1995 became the first African American woman to serve as Health Commissioner in Philadelphia.^[222]
• Catherine Juanita Elizabeth Roett-Reid in 1951 became the first African American pediatrician inHouston, Texas.^[223]
• Barbara Ross-Lee in 1993 became the first African-American woman appointed dean of a medical school in the United States.^[43]
• Mary Munson Runge in 1979 became the first African American to serve as the head of theAmerican Pharmaceutical Association.^[224]

S

• Patricia Ann Sanders was one of the first two African Americans and the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Southern Alabama School of Medicine. (The other wasJohn Henry Wagner III.)^[64]
• Jessie Sleet Scales became the first African Americanpublic health nurse in 1900 when she was appointed to the Tuberculosis Committee of theCharity Organization Society in New York.^[225]
• Velma Scantleburry-White is the first African-American female transplant surgeon in the United States^[226]
• Rosalyn P. Scott in 1977 became the first African American woman trained in the practice ofthoracic surgery.^[227]
• Florence Battle Shafig in 1976 became the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine from theUniversity of IowaCollege of Medicine.^[114]
• Margo Shamberger in 1983 was one of the first African Americans to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree fromNortheastern Ohio University College of Medicine. (The others wereYvonne A. Patterson,Rochelle A. Broome, andJohn D. Lewis.)^[74]
• Doris Shockley in 1955 became the first African American woman to earn a doctorate inpharmacology.^[228]
• Omega Logan Silva in 1974 became the first African American person to work at theDepartment of Veterans Affairs as a Clinical Investigator.^[229]
• Ellamae Simmons was the first African-American woman medical doctor in the United States to specialize inimmunology.^[230]
• Angelica Valencia Sims in 1975 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theMedical College of Georgia. (The other wasElizabeth Hawkins Woods.)^[231]
• Jeanne Craig Sinkford in 1975 becomes the first woman to serve as the dean of a school of dentistry.^[232]
• Gloria R. Smith in 1983 became the first nurse appointed to the head of a state agency in Michigan.^[173]
• Margaret Charles Smith was a midwife inAlabama, who became known for her extraordinary skill over a long career, spanning over thirty years.^[233]
• Gayle Smith-Blair in 1987 became the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine degree from theTexas A&M School of Medicine^[96]
• Vada Watson Somerville in 1918 became the first African American woman to earn a Doctorate of Dental Surgery inCalifornia.^[234]
• Jeanne Spurlock in 1971 became the first woman to receive theEdward A. Strecker M.D. Award.^[235]
• Mabel Keaton Staupers worked to desegregate the nursing profession.^[236]
• Rosalyn Sterling in 1986 became the first African-American woman certified by theAmerican Board of Thoracic Surgery^[96]
• Ella P. Stewart in 1916 became the first black woman licensed as apharmacist in bothPennsylvania and in the United States.^[237]
• Hilda G. Straker in 1950 was the first African-American woman certified by the American Board of Dermatology and Syphilology (name changed in 1955 to American Board of Dermatology.^[238]
• Florence Stroud became the first African American health directory forBerkeley University.^[239]
• Virginia Elizabeth Stull in 1966 was the first African-American woman to earn aDoctor of Medicine from theUniversity of Texas Medical School at Galveston^[240]

T

• Natalia Tanner in 1946 became the first African American to do their residency at theUniversity of Chicago.^[241]
• Ruth Janetta Temple, a physician, worked in public health inLos Angeles.^[242]
• Claudia L. Thomas is the first female orthopedic surgeon in the United States^[226]
• Debi Thomas in 1988 won anOlympic bronze medal forfigure skating and in 1997, graduated from medical school.^[243]
• Adah Belle Samuel Thoms earned her nursing degree in 1905 at theLincoln Hospital and Home School of Nursing and went on to advocate for better opportunities for black nurses.^[44]
• Yvonne Thornton in 1981 became the first African-American woman to become board certified in special competency inmaternal-fetal medicine.^[43]
• Deborah Ann Turner in 1985 became the first African-American certified by theAmerican Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the specialty ofgynecologic oncology.^[244]

V

• Isabella Vandervall was an African-American physician,gynecologist and a prominent advocate for the birth control movement inNew York City.^[245][246]
• Lola N. Vassall worked as a civilian physician at United States Army hospitals in Vienna, Washington, D.C., Monterey, California, and finally atLetterman Army Hospital in San Francisco, California.^[247]
• Yvonnecris Veal in 1989 became the first woman chair on the Board of Trustees for theNational Medical Association.^[248]

W

• Valerie O. Walker in 1994 became the first African American woman to serve on the Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts.^[249]
• Mary Fitzbutler Waring, a physician andclubwoman, served as the chair of the Department of Health and Hygiene for theNational Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACW).^[92]

  

• LaRae H. Washington was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theUniversity of Colorado School of Medicine. (The other was Deborah Green.)^[61]

• Alyce Faye Wattleton in 1978 became the first African American to serve as president of thePlanned Parenthood Federation of America.^[250]
• Alfreda Johnson Webb in 1949 became one of the first of two African American women to earn a doctor of veterinary medicine.^[160]
• Josie E. Wells in 1910 became the first African American woman teaching at Meharry Medical College.^[251]
• Frances Cress Welsing, psychiatrist who studiedracism.^[252]
• Doris Wethers, who graduated fromYale School of Medicine in 1952, was the third African-American woman to graduate from the school. In 1958 Wethers was the first African-American attending physician at St Luke's Hospital, in New York City.^[132][253]
• Emma Rochelle Wheeler, graduated from Meharry Medical College in 1905 and helped createWalden Hospital.^[254]
• Ionia Rollin Whipper, graduated from Howard University Medical School in 1903 and in 1931, created the Ionia R. Whipper Home for Unwed Mothers.^[255]
• Betty Smith Williams in 1971 co-founded theNational Black Nurses Association.^[44][256]
• Elizabeth Hawkins Woods in 1975 was one of the first two African-American women to earn aDoctor of Medicine (MD) degree from theMedical College of Georgia. (The other wasAngelica Valencia Sims.)^[231]
• Geraldine Pittman Woods, in 1964 became the first African-American woman appointed to the National Advisory General Medical Services Council.^[43]
• Minnie D. Woodward in 1913 was the first African American to earn a certificate of registration as a trained nurse inTennessee.^[257]
• Jane C. Wright, in 1967 became the associate dean and professor of surgery atNew York Medical College.^[43]

Y

• Joyce Yerwood in 1955 was the first female African-American physician inFairfield County, Connecticut, and founder of the Yerwood Center, the first community center for African Americans inStamford, Connecticut^[258]
• N. Louise Young was the first African American woman practicing medicine in Maryland, beginning in 1933.^[208]
• Terri Young is an American pediatric ophthalmologist.^[259]

Z

• Josefa Zaratt in 1905 was one of the first African-American women to graduate fromTufts Medical School.^[260]

A

• Ije Akunyili in 2023 became the first African American woman chief medical officer atJersey City Medical Center.^[261]
• Michelle Albert is a cardiologist who is the Walter A. Haas Lucie-Stern Endowed Chair in Cardiology and professor of medicine at theUniversity of California, San Francisco. Albert is a past president of theAmerican Heart Association, theAssociation of Black Cardiologists and of the Association of University Cardiologists. She is an elected member of theNational Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigators and theAssociation of American Physicians.^[262]
• Adejoke Ayoola is a Nigerian-American academic and nursing researcher atCalvin University.^[263]

B

• Wanda Barfield in 2025 is the Director of the Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) within the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) at theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).^[264]
• Regina Marcia Benjamin, 18thUnited States Surgeon General, appointed in 2009.^[10]
• Marie Bernard was the Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity at theNational Institutes of Health (NIH):Marie Bernard^[265]
• Uché Blackstock is anemergency physician and former associate professor of emergency medicine at theNew York University School of Medicine.^[266]
• Carolyn Barley Britton in 2008 became the firstneurologist president of theNational Medical Association. Britton is known for her national health care advocacy and work in neurological complications ofHIV andinfectious diseases.^[267]
• U. Diane Buckingham is a psychiatrist known for her development ofculturally sensitive diagnosis and treatment ofmental illness in children andadolescents.^[268]

• 

  Nadine Burke Harris becomes the first Surgeon General of the State of California in 2019.^[269]

C

• Judith Martin Cadore is a U.S.family practitioner who serves rural populations prone tohealth care disparities in theBay City, Texas area.^[270]
• Virginia Caine is the director and chief medical officer of theMarion County Public Health Department inIndianapolis, Indiana and in 2024, theNational Medical Association installed Virginia Caine as its 125th president.^[271]
• Rotonya M. Carr is ahepatologist and physician-scientist who studies the function of lipid metabolites andlipid droplet proteins in relation to hepatic insulin signaling. She is the Cyrus E. Rubin Chair and division head ofgastroenterology at theUniversity of Washington.^[272]
• Camille A. Clare is anobstetrician andgynecologist. Clare is the Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology atSUNY Downstate Medical Center and Professor at the College of Medicine and the School of Public Health.^[273]
• Janine Austin Clayton is an ophthalmologist and theNational Institutes of Health (NIH) associate director for research on women's health and director of the Office of Women's Health.^[274]
• Tracie C. Collins is an academic,physician, and government official serving as theSecretary of Health of New Mexico.^[275]
• Kizzmekia Corbett is a viralimmunologist. Corbett is an Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases atHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Shutzer Assistant Professor at theHarvard Radcliffe Institute.^[276]
• Giselle Corbie-Smith is a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Social Medicine at theUniversity of North Carolina School of Medicine. She serves as Director of the UNC Center for Health Equity Research and Associate Provost of the Institute of Rural Innovation.^[277]
• Deidra Crews is anephrologist andepidemiologist. Crews is the Deputy Director of Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, Associate Director for Faculty Development, Division of Nephrology, and a Professor of Medicine atJohns Hopkins School of Medicine.^[278]

• Jessica Henderson Daniel in 2018 became the first African-American president elected to theAmerican Psychological Association.^[279]
• Deborah V. Deas is a psychiatrist and academic administrator serving as the dean of theUC Riverside School of Medicine since 2016.^[280]
• Letitia Dzirasa in 2019 became the first African-American woman commissioner of theBaltimore City Health Department.^[281]

E

• Shekinah Elmore was an assistant professor in the department ofradiation oncology at theUniversity of North Carolina School of Medicine.^[282]
• Ihuoma Emenuga is an internist and public health physician who served as the commissioner of theBaltimore City Health Department from January to July 2024.^[283]
• Roselyn Payne Epps in 2002 became the first African American woman president of theAmerican Medical Women's Association.^[43]
• Michele K. Evans is aninternist and medicaloncologist. She is a senior investigator and Deputy Scientific Director at theNational Institute on Aging (NIH).^[284]
• Ngozi Ezike was the first African-American woman director of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and in 2022, she was appointed CEO and President of theSinai Chicago hospital system.^[285][286]

• Icilma V. Fergus in 2014 became President of theAssociation of Black Cardiologists (ABC)^[287]
• Courtney Fitzhugh is ahematologist-oncologist andscientist. She is aclinical researcher and head of the laboratory of earlysickle cell mortality prevention at theNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.^[288]
• Gwendolyn A. Foster, first Black female on active duty to become a general officer in theUnited States Air Force Medical Service.^[289]
• Mindy Thompson Fullilove is asocial psychiatrist who focuses on the ways social and environmental factors affect the mental health of communities. She is currently a professor of Urban Policy and Health atThe New School.^[290]

G

• Safiya George is aU.S. Virgin Islandsnurse practitioner andacademic administrator specialized inholistic health,spirituality, andHIV. She is the president of theUniversity of the Virgin Islands.^[291]
• Melissa L. Gilliam is apediatric and adolescentgynecologist. In 2021 Gilliam became the first woman of color to serve as provost ofOhio State University and in 2024 became the 11th president ofBoston University.^[292]
• Sherita Hill Golden is aphysician-scientist who is the Hugh P. McCormick Family Professor ofEndocrinology andMetabolism atJohns Hopkins University.^[293]
• Anjelica Gonzalez in 2022 was appointed head ofDavenport College, making her the first Black woman to serve as head of college inYale University's history.^[294]
• Wallena Gould in 2015 became the first African AmericanCertified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) to become a fellow in theAmerican Academy of Nursing (AAN).^[295]
• Carmen Renée Green is ananesthesiologist,pain medicine physician, andacademic administrator. In 2021, she became the second dean of theCUNY School of Medicine.^[296]
• Vanessa Grubbs is anephrologist and a writer based inOakland,California. Grubbs is an associate professor at theUniversity of California, San Francisco and works atZuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.^[297]

H

• Odette Harris in 2018 became the first African-American woman appointed Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University.^[298][299]
• Patrice Harris in 2018 became the first African-American president elected to theAmerican Medical Association.^[43]
• Rebecca Hasson is an Associate Professor ofKinesiology at theUniversity of Michigan. She researches the causes and consequences ofpediatricobesity and how the environment impacts obesity related metabolic risk factors to inform health policies.^[300]
• Andrea Hayes-Jordan was the first pediatric surgeon to perform a high-risk, life-saving procedure in children with a rare form of cancer and developed the first orthotropic xenograft model of metastatic Ewing's sarcoma. In 2002, she became the first African-American female pediatric surgeon board-certified in the United States. She is the Chairwoman of Surgery at Howard University Hospital.^[301][302]
• Sharon Henry in 2000 became the first African-American woman to become a fellow in the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.^[43]
• Ebony Jade Hilton in 2013 became the first African-American woman anesthesiologist to be hired at theMedical University of South Carolina (MUSC)^[303]

J

• Thea L. James is the Associate Professor, Associate Chief Medical Officer, and Vice President of the Mission at theBoston Medical Center.^[304][305]
• Michele Johnson, became the first woman and African American promoted to a full professorship of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and of Neurosurgery at theYale School of Medicine in 2014.^[306]
• Paula A. Johnson is the first African-American president ofWellesley College, chairwoman of the Boston Public Health Commission, former professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.^[307]

L

• Risa Lavizzo-Mourey is an American medical doctor and executive who served as president and CEO of theRobert Wood Johnson Foundation from 2003 to 2017.^[308][309]
• Irene D. Long in 2000 was appointed as the first female chief medical officer at the Kennedy Space Center^[310]

M

• Veronica Mallett is a healthphysician. She is known for her work inurogynecology, specifically with respect to genital organprolapse andurinary incontinence, and for her efforts in reducing health disparities.^[311]
• Kameron Leigh Matthews is aphysician who is the Chief Health Officer of Cityblock Health effective January 2022, a value-based healthcare provider forMedicaid and lower-incomeMedicare beneficiaries.^[312]
• Celia Maxwell is aninfectious diseasephysician andacademic administrator. She is the co-director of clinical trials and the clinical trials unit at theHoward University College of Medicine.^[313]
• Aletha Maybank was the chief health equity officer of theAmerican Medical Association for five years, until stepping down at the end of 2024.^[314]
• Worta McCaskill-Stevens was aphysician-scientist and medicaloncologist who specialized in cancer disparities research, management ofcomorbidities within clinical trials, and molecular research for cancer prevention interventions.^[315]
• Monica McLemore is anurse who is an associate professor of Family Health Nursing at theUniversity of California, San Francisco.^[316]
• Juanita Merchant is an Americangastroenterologist andphysiology researcher who has contributed to understanding of gastric response to chronic inflammation.^[317]
• Jennifer Mieres is acardiologist who wroteHeart Smart for Black Women and Latinas. Mieres is the Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and a professor of cardiology, at TheZucker School of Medicine.^[318]
• Michelle E. Morse is aninternist, an assistant professor atHarvard Medical School/Brigham and Women's Hospital and co-founded EqualHealth and Social Medicine Consortium. She is currently the interim Commissioner of Health for the City of New York.^[319]

N

• LaQuandra S. Nesbitt is afamily physician who in 2022 joined theGeorge Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS) as the executive director of the Center for Population Health Sciences and Health Equity.^[320]
• Evelyn Nicol was animmunologist andmicrobiologist. Nicol was the first scientist to isolate theherpes zoster virus, and is one of the few African-American women to receive a patent in molecular biology, for a new production method ofurokinase.^[321][322]

O

• Elizabeth O. Ofili in 2000 became the first woman to serve as president of the Association of Black Cardiologists.^[323]
• Bisola Ojikutu is a physician,infectious disease specialist, public health leader and health equity researcher. In July 2021, she was appointed as the Executive Director of theBoston Public Health Commission.^[324]

P

• Monica E. Peek is aphysician and the Ellen H. Block Professor for Health Justice and Associate Vice Chair for Research Faculty Development at theUniversity of Chicago'sPritzker School of Medicine.^[325]
• Lori J. Pierce in 2020 became the first African-American woman to be the President of theAmerican Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)^[326]
• Tina Young Poussaint is a professor of radiology at theHarvard Medical School and aNeuroradiologist at theBoston Children's Hospital. In 2010 she served as president of the American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology.^[327]

R

• Joan Reede became the first dean for diversity and community partnership atHarvard Medical School in 2001.^[328]
• Valerie Montgomery Rice, in 2014 became the president of theMorehouse School of Medicine, the first woman to hold the position.^[329]
• Lynne D. Richardson is anemergency physician and health services researcher. She is a professor atIcahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a member of theNational Academy of Medicine.^[330]

S

• Adrienne Williams Scott is anophthalmologist specialized indiabetic retinopathy,epiretinal membranes, andmacular degeneration. She is chief of theWilmer Eye Institute inBel Air, Harford County, Maryland. She is an associate professor of ophthalmology atJohns Hopkins School of Medicine.^[331]
• Jeannette E. South-Paul in 2001 became the first African American to serve as permanent department chair at the University of Pittsburgh department of family medicine.^[332]
• Ala Stanford is a pediatric surgeon. She is the founder of R.E.A.L. Concierge Medicine and the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium. Stanford is also the first African-American woman pediatric surgeon to be trained entirely in the United States.^[333]
• Altha Stewart is apsychiatrist. In 2015, Stewart was recruited by theUniversity of Tennessee Health Science Center to establish and direct the Center for Health in Justice Involved Youth. While there, she became the first African-American president of theAmerican Psychiatric Association.^[334]

T

• Michelle Taylor is an Americanpediatrician and public health official currently serving as the commissioner for theBaltimore City Health Department since 2025.^[335]
• Susan C. Taylor is adermatologist. She is the Bernett L. Johnson, Jr., M.D. Professor and the vice chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the department of dermatology at thePerelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the 84th president of theAmerican Academy of Dermatology, the first African-American in the role.^[336]
• Patricia L. Turner in 2022 became the first African American, and first woman to serve as executive director and Chief Executive Officer of theAmerican College of Surgeons.^[337]

W

• Kara Odom Walker serves as the Chief Population Health Officer atNemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, where she leads all aspects of population health strategy, research, innovation and implementation.^[338]
• Akilah Weber is a board-certifiedOBGYN and leads the Pediatric & Adolescent Gynecology Division atRady Children's Hospital-San Diego. Weber is also apolitician serving as a member of theCalifornia State Senate since 2024.^[339]
• Nadja West in 2015 became the first African-AmericanSurgeon General of the United States Army.
• Consuelo H. Wilkins is a physician, biomedical researcher, and health equity expert. She is Senior Vice President and Senior Associate Dean for Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence atVanderbilt University Medical Center. She is a professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and has a joint appointment atMeharry Medical College.^[340][341]
• Karen Winkfield in 2005 became the second black woman to complete the medical scientist program atDuke University School of Medicine.^[342]

Y

• Yasmin Hurd In 2017 elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and she is the Ward-Coleman Chair of TranslationalNeuroscience and the Director of the Addiction Institute atMount Sinai.^[343]

Z

• Jasmine Zapata in 2021 was named thechief medical officer and stateepidemiologist for community health atWisconsin Department of Health Services.^[344]

• Aptheker, Bettina (1982).Woman's Legacy: Essays on Race, Sex, and Class in American History. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press.ISBN 978-0870233654 – via Internet Archive.
• Epps, Charles H.; Johnson, Davis G.; Vaughan, Audrey L. (October 1993)."Black Medical Pioneers: African-American 'Firsts' In Academic and Organized Medicine".Journal of the National Medical Association.85 (10):777–796.PMC 2568213.PMID 8254696.
• Hine, Darlene Clark (1997).Black Women in America: Science Health and Medicine. New York: Facts on File, Inc.ISBN 0816034249.
• Smith, Jessie Carney (2003).Black Firsts : 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events (2nd, revised and expanded ed.). Canton, Michigan: Visible Ink Press.ISBN 1-57859-142-2.OCLC 51060259 – via Internet Archive.
• Webster, Raymond B. (1999).African American Firsts in Science & Technology. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group.ISBN 978-0-7876-3876-4.OCLC 41238505 – via Internet Archive.

• Women in medicine
• Lists of African-American people
• Lists of American women
• Lists of health professionals
• African-American women physicians
• African-American physicians
• African-American nurses

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