Lucille Perez, M.D., was associate director of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. She was a leading authority on substance abuse and HIV prevention, and headed the internationally renowned Faculty Department Program at CSAP.
Dr. Joycelyn Elders was the first person in the state of Arkansas to become board certified in pediatric endocrinology and the first African American and only the second woman to head the U.S. Public Health Service.
Margaret Hamburg, one of the youngest people ever elected to the Institute of Medicine (IoM, an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences), is a highly regarded expert in community health and bio-defense, including preparedness for nuclear, biological, and chemical threats. As health commissioner for New York City from 1991 to 1997, she developed innovative programs for controlling the spread of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
Maria Isabel Herran, M.D., has devoted herself to international health, refugee children, and the development and regulation of international adoption.
Maria J. Merino, M.D., chief of the Surgical Pathology Section of the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Research, is internationally recognized for her work in anatomic pathology.
Dr. Chinn was the first African American woman to hold an internship at Harlem Hospital, the first woman to ride with the Harlem Hospital ambulance crew on emergency calls and the first African American woman to graduate from the University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1926.
Dr. Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill earned her doctor of medicine degree at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1899, making her the second Native American woman in the United States to hold an M.D. degree (Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first). She used her professional status to help other Native Americans, working at public clinics and dispensaries and at a school for Native American children.
Dr. Linda M. Dairki Shortliffe built a successful career in the relatively new field of pediatric urology when very few women surgeons were doing such work. Since 1988, she has been at the Stanford University School of Medicine Medical Center and Packard Children’s Hospital as chief of pediatric urology. Since 1993, she has also been director of the Urology Residency Program at Stanford, and has been successful in recruiting more women physicians to her specialty.
In 1997, Dr. Laura Williams became the first Native American woman physician to become a faculty member in the University of California system.
As a teenage mother, Laurie McLemore was told she would not be able to become a physician. Despite the lack of encouragement she received from academic advisors, and the challenges of raising a family whilst building a career, she went on to complete premedical training with honors and was offered a scholarship to attend medical school.