Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens
"The only black woman in her graduating class, Helen Dickens earned her medical degree from the University of Illinois in Chicago in 1934. She completed her internship at Provident Hospital in Chicago during which she treated patients with tuberculosis in impoverished communities. In 1945, Dr. Dickens was the first black woman to receive board certification in obstetrics and gynecology. Five years later, she became the first black woman admitted as a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. She served as director of the obstetrics department at Mercy-Douglass Hospital in Collingdale, Pa., for more than 12 years."
-Brooke Murphy and Morgan Haefner
-Brooke Murphy and Morgan Haefner
Dr. Ann Preston
"Ann Preston, MD, in 1866, became the first female dean of a US-based medical school. Like Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, she dedicated her career to the care of patients and the provision of opportunities for women to study medicine."
- Steven Rourke
- Steven Rourke
Elizabeth Blackwell
"Elizabeth Blackwell, a teacher and immigrant to the U.S., turned to medicine after a friend confided on her deathbed that she would have been spared much suffering had her physician been a woman. She went on to become the first woman to earn the Medical Doctorate in the U.S. She was admitted as a prank by the all-male students on the faculty – who allowed the students to vote on Elizabeth’s admission never thinking they would allow a woman to become their peer. The face of medicine has changed significantly in the 160+ years since Dr. Blackwell graduated from Geneva Medical College (now Hobart and William Smith College/SUNY). "
-Minerva A. Romero Arenas
-Minerva A. Romero Arenas