College of Medicine students celebrate Black History Month with annual poster initiative
Two medical students honor African Americans who've made big contributions to the field for Black History Month
Esther Duqueney and Samari Blair, UF College of Medicine class of 2023 diversity liaisons
Photo by Jesse S. Jones
Feb. 16, 2022 — As society works toward greater diversity, inclusion and equity in education and health care, it is important to learn about and recognize the many significant contributions African Americans have made to the field of medicine. The College of Medicine community celebrates and supports Black students, faculty, staff and alumni of color each February, and for the past three years, two students have gone above and beyond to educate others and honor Black leaders and trailblazers throughout history with their annual Black History Month poster initiative.
Third-year medical students and class of 2023 diversity liaisons Samari Blair and Esther Duqueney have put together a series of posters highlighting important African American figures in health care every February since beginning medical school in 2019. Their work, in collaboration with the Office for Diversity and Health Equity, can be seen in the atrium of the George T. Harrell, M.D., Medical Education Building.
The biographical posters on display rotate every week during February to highlight a total of eight individuals. They are also on display all month as a presentation on the college’s Office of Student Affairs website.
“As diversity liaisons for our class, our initiative is to bring awareness to the different realms of diversity and inclusion here at the UF College of Medicine and in our general society,” said. “Working on these posters provided us with an opportunity to educate others on how Black physicians and scientists have contributed to the field of medicine and health care. We hope individuals look at this project and are able to learn something and take away the rich history that is embedded within our society.”
Duqueney added, “Here at UF, we are dedicated to providing the best patient care possible for the community, and part of that means working to bring awareness to the various realms of diversity, health equity and inclusion. This initiative is part of a bigger goal to build physicians who have a certain level of cultural to provide quality patient care.”
Celebrating Black History Month:
Highlighting African American individuals who've made significant contributions to the medical field
This information has been compiled by UF College of Medicine Class of 2023 diversity liaisons Samari Blair and Esther Duqueney in collaboration with the Office for Diversity and Health Equity.
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Leonidas Harris Berry, MDBerry was the first Black doctor on staff at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, appointed in 1946. He chaired a commission that worked to make hospitals more inclusive for Black physicians and increase facilities in underserved parts of the city.
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Marilyn Hughes Gaston, MD
Gaston was a sickle cell research pioneer and the first Black female physician director of the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Primary Health Care. She was also the second Black woman to serve as assistant surgeon general.
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Patricia Era Bath, MD
Bath was the first African American to complete an ophthalmology residency in the 1960s, the first woman appointed chair of ophthalmology at a U.S. medical school and the first Black female physician to receive a medical patent in 1988 for the Laserphaco Probe, a device used in cataract surgery.
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Herbert W. Nickens, MD
Nickens was the first director of the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1986. Later, at the AAMC, he led a project to enroll 3,000 students from underrepresented minority groups in U.S. medical schools annually by the year 2000.
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Regina Marcia Benjamin, MD, MBA
Benjamin is best known for her tenure as the 18th U.S. Surgeon General. Before her appointment as surgeon general, she worked extensively with rural communities in the South.
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Vivian Pinn, MD
Pinn was the first woman and first Black woman to serve as director of the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health. She was also the first African American woman to chair an academic pathology department in the United States, at Howard University College of Medicine.
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Otis Boykin
Boykin was a prominent African American inventor whose work on electrical resistors led to the creation of the first successful, implantable pacemaker. Over the course of his life, he earned over 25 patents.
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Velma Scantlebury, MD
Scantlebury is the nation's first African-American woman transplant surgeon. She has performed over 2,000 transplants and has special interests in researching the end results of donation and transplantation in African Americans and increasing organ donation in the African American community through education and awareness.
