Dr. S. Josephine Baker became the first director of the New York City Bureau of Child Hygiene, the first such bureau in the country, in 1908. In 1917, she was the first woman to earn a doctorate in public health from the New York University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College.
In 1901, Dr. Dorothy Reed Mendenhall discovered the blood cell disorder characteristic of Hodgkin’s disease, known as the Reed cell (sometimes the Reed-Sternberg).
Dr. Joanne Harley Lynn leads Altarum Institute’s Center on Elder Care and Advanced Illness. Previously, she was director of The Washington Home Center for Palliative Care Studies, in Washington, D.C. She was also a senior scientist for RAND, a nonprofit institution that seeks to improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis, and a clinical professor of medicine at The George Washington University, as well as president of Americans for Better Care of the Dying, a nonprofit public advocacy group that seeks to improve Medicare and Medicaid and other aspects of federal health policy.
She worked tirelessly to convince Model Cities to develop a Central District Pediatric Clinic in Seattle.
Monica McLemore is one of the leading scholars in the field of anti-racist birth equity research, as well as in community-informed methods and policy translation.
American birth control advocate
Erin Waters is a healthcare educator and activist with a focus on the Black and Indigenous queer community.
From Washington to D.C., Tulalip Tribe Vice-Chairwomxn Deborah Parker is a pillar of Indigenous leadership and activism about violence against Indigenous women.
Rachel Levine became the highest-ranking openly transgender government official in U.S. history when she was confirmed by the Senate as the 17th Assistant Secretary for Health in March 2021. Her clinical and public health work has helped people dealing with a range of medical issues, including eating disorders, the opioid crisis, and COVID-19.
Cecilia Chung is a groundbreaking advocate for the transgender community and those living with HIV/AIDS. For decades, she has worked on the local, state, and national levels to end the discrimination and violence that her communities face.