Dr. Natalia Tanner was the first African American to be accepted into the residency program at the University of Chicago, the first African American board certified pediatrician in Detroit and the first African American woman fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Pura Belpré arrived in New York City in 1921 and discovered a need to connect the growing Hispanic communities across the city’s boroughs.
Zee Edgell is the author of four novels including Beka Lamb (1982), In Times Like These (1991), and Time and the River (2007).
Teresa Crespo de Salvador is the author of ten books, most of them poetry collections and children’s books.
Zaidy Zouain is the author of the poetry collection, Lilibeth (1979) and a number of essays, including Ensayos históricos sobre Martí (Historical Essays on Martí) and Ensayos históricos sobre la Batalla de Santiago (Historical Essays on the Battle of Santiago).
Dr. Buckingham has received the Presidential Scholar Award from the Black American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Black National Medical Association, Psychiatry Division, Chester Pierce Resident’s Award.
Dr. Yvonnecris Veal was the fifth African American student to be enrolled in the Medical College of Virginia, at a time when only 14 of the 26 southern medical schools had accepted black students. She was the first woman to chair the Board of Trustees of the National Medical Association.
In 1972, Dr. Sayde Curry was the first African American woman to become a gastroenterologist in the United States, and the only African American to train in the gastroenterology fellowship program at Duke University.
Dr. Benjamin was appointed U.S. Surgeon General in 2009.
Dr. Roselyn Epps was the first African American local president of the American Medical Women’s Association, the first African American and first woman to become president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the first African American elected national president of the American Medical Women’s Association and the first African American woman president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia.