Black Doctors | Excelling While Black

Doctors

Honoring the healers who dedicated their lives to saving others

Executive Director of Health Equity Initiatives and Presidential Fellow at Purdue University

Served as the 20th Surgeon General of the United States (2017-2021)
Fourth African American confirmed as U.S. Surgeon General and the first anesthesiologist to hold the office

Immunologist and Assistant Professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Commissioner at New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Appointed Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in January 2026
Founded Vot-ER, which has engaged thousands of healthcare providers and hundreds of hospitals in nonpartisan voter registration

President and Chief Executive Officer at Morehouse School of Medicine

First African American woman to lead a freestanding medical school in the United States
First woman to serve as president of Morehouse School of Medicine

Associate Dean for Health Equity Research and C.N.H. Long Professor of Internal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine

Chaired the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force
Served as Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team

Dean, College of Medicine at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science

First African American woman and first woman to serve as Commissioner of Public Health for Massachusetts (1987)
Established the nation's first Violence Prevention Office at a state health department

Director at National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

First African American director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Principal investigator in the clinical trials that established hydroxyurea as the first FDA-approved therapy for sickle cell anemia

Founder, Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity at Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity

First African American woman pediatric surgeon trained entirely in the United States
Founded the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, which provided COVID-19 testing and vaccinations to tens of thousands of Philadelphia residents

President and Chief Executive Officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

First African American to serve as president and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Elected member of the National Academy of Medicine