Judith Flores, M.D., developed an award-winning bilingual, bicultural asthma management program that reached out to New York City’s Hispanic community in Brooklyn. The program has improved the quality of life for people with asthma and reduced the severity of asthma attacks.
In 2001, Dr. Joan Reede was appointed Harvard Medical School’s first dean for diversity and community partnership. She is the first African American woman to hold a position of that rank at HMS and one of the few African American women to hold a deanship at a medical school in the United States.
American political activist
Known as the “Mother of Redwoods” for her environmental organizing, her work contributed to the creation of Redwood National Park in 1968 and its subsequent expansion in 1978.
Harriet Bell Hayden, a prominent abolitionist and activist, sheltered freedom seekers in her home on Beacon Hill and dedicated her life to advocating for equal rights for all.
Japanese-American artist, children’s book author, and civic activist who worked with the OSS (predecessor to the CIA)
As national director of health services for Project Head Start in 1965, Dr. Gertrude Hunter helped implement the first national comprehensive health program to immunize, offer preventive medical and dental care, and treat any hidden health conditions in preschool children.
Dr. Grace James was one of the first two African American women on the faculty at a southern medical school and the first African American on the staff of the Louisville Children’s Hospital and on the faculty at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Assistant surgeon general and rear admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.
In 1900, Dr. Georgia Dwelle was the first Spelman College graduate to attend medical school. In 1920, she established the first obstetrical “lying-in” hospital for African American women in Atlanta. In 1935, she established the first venereal disease clinic for African Americans in Georgia and founded the first “Mother’s Club” for African American women in Georgia.