Health and Medicine
Chronology
1862 Susan King Taylor (1848 - 1912), a writer and a teacher, was the first nurse to serve with the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War (1862 - 1865).
1864 Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831 - 1895), a medical doctor, was the first to earn a medical degree in 1864 from now Boston College School of Medicine.
1873 Susan McKinney Stewart (March 1847 - March 17, 1918), a physician and author, was first in New York State in 1873, and was the third to earn a medical degree in U.S.
1879 Mary Elizabeth Mahoney (1845 - 1882), a nurse, was the first to graduate with a nursing degree from the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston in 1879.
1890 Ida Gray Nelson Rollins (1867 - 1953), a dentist, was the first to earn a dental - surgeon degree when she graduated in 1890 from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
1916 Ella Phillips Stewart (1893 - 1987), a pharmacist, was the first to graduate from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh in 1916.
1955 Dorothy Lavinia Brown (1919 - 2004), a surgeon, Legislator and teacher, was the first surgeon in the South (Tennessee) after completing her residency at Meharry Medical College of Medicine in 1955. She was also the first to serve in the Tennessee legislature.
1971 Florence Small Gaynor (1920 - 1993), a registered nurse, was the first to head a major teaching hospital, Sydenham Hospital in Harlem, NY, as the executive director in 1971.
1978 Faye Wattleton (b. 1943) is the former president and CEO of Planned Parenthood-as well as the first African-American, first female and youngest president of Planned Parenthood in 1978.
1981 Alexa Canady (b. 1950), a surgeon and educator, was the first neurosurgeon in the United States after she completed her residency at the University of Minnesota in 1981.
1993 Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933), a medical doctor, was the first to be appointed Surgeon General of the United States by President Bill Clinton in 1993.
Rebecca Lee Crumpler
Dorothy Lavinia Brown
Alexa Canady
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