lasting legacy. Her fearlessness in the face of adversity will serve as an example to future generations of doctors and nurses, and her legacy will be one of boundless compassion and scientific inquiry.
Modern-Day Rebecca Crumpler
Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders had the same position. Doctor and lecturer Joycelyn Elders was born in Schaal, Arkansas, to Curtis Jones and Haller Reed Jones on August 14, 1933. Elders attended the 1942 Howard County Training School in Tollette, Arkansas. She got a four-year scholarship at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she earned a B.S. in biology in 1952. Elders received her M.D. in 1960 and M.S. in biochemistry in 1967 from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. Pediatric endocrinologist Elders was certified in 1978.
Elders started a pediatric internship at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul after earning her M.D. She became U.A. Medical School’s head resident in 1963. Elders joined the University of Arkansas in 1971 as an associate professor and became a professor in 1976. Elders became Arkansas Department of Health director in 1987 under Governor Bill Clinton.
In 1993, Clinton appointed her the 15th Surgeon General. Elders championed public school sex, alcohol, drug, and tobacco education, and women’s reproductive health as Surgeon General. After resigning, she returned to the University of Arkansas as a pediatric endocrinology professor in 1994. Elders left the University of Arkansas Medical Center in 2002. The Jocelyn Elders Clinic opened in Kisinga, Uganda, in 2016. The clinic emphasized sex education and treated malaria-afflicted Garama Humanist Secondary School pupils.
Elders wrote approximately 100 research publications on insulin resistance and other endocrine problems. Her book, From Sharecroppers’ Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States, was released in 1997.
Elders received the Woman of Distinction Award from Worthen Bank in 1987, Arkansas Democrat Woman of the Year from Statewide Newspaper in 1998, and the Candace Award from National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1991. She entered the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2016. The National Institute of Health Career Development Award went to Elders. The University of Minnesota Medical School created the Joycelyn Elders Chair in Sexual Health Education in 2009.