Ava L. Kenney is an Environmental Project Manager. In this segment, she shares the work episode that shaped her career choice in this area.
learn more*Lilian Ngoyi was born on this date in 1911. She was a Black machinist, nurse, and South African activist. Lilian Masediba Matabane was born in Pretoria, South Africa. She was the only daughter of Annie and Isaac Matabane and a sister to three brothers, Lawrence, George, and Percy. Her grandfather, on her mother’s side, was a […]
learn more*Paul Cornely was born on this date in 1906. He was a Black physician, public health pioneer, and activist. Paul Bertau Cornely was born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. His mother was Adrienne Mellon, and his father was Eleodore Cornely. At the age of three, his family moved to Puerto Rico. He moved to the United States as […]
learn more*The birth of Jane “Nellie” Datcher is celebrated on this date in 1868. She was a Black botanist and woman’s activist. Jane Eleanor Datcher was born and raised in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Samuel and Mary Victoria Cook Datcher. Her maternal grandfather, Rev. John Francis Cook, Sr., was the founding pastor of the Fifteenth […]
learn more*The birth of Ruby S. Jackson is celebrated on this date in 1915. She was a Black Public Health Nurse. From Eufaula, Alabama, Ruby Sherman Jackson moved to Atlanta in 1932 to continue her high school education at Booker T. Washington High School, as education for Blacks ended in the 10th grade in Eufaula. She […]
learn more*The Mississippi Health Project is celebrated on this date in 1935. This healthcare project was an initiative sponsored by the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority during the Great Depression. The purpose of the Mississippi Health Project was to bring health awareness to Mississippi Delta residents who did not have access to health care. The initiative lasted for six […]
learn more*Nancy Leftenant was born on this date in 1920. She was a Black nurse and military officer. Also known as “Lefty,” she was born in Goose Creek, South Carolina, to James and Eunice Leftenant. She graduated from Amityville High School, Amityville, New York, in 1939 and New York’s Lincoln School of Nursing in 1941. She […]
learn more*The birth of Phyllis Mae Dailey is celebrated on this date in 1920. She was a Black nurse and naval officer. From New York City, she was a graduate of Lincoln School of Nursing in New York and a student of public health at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dailey initially wanted to enter the U.S. […]
learn more*The New York Colored Orphan Asylum is celebrated on this date in 1836. This was a healthcare facility in New York City that existed until 1946. The Colored Orphan Asylum was founded in Manhattan by three Quakers: Anna, Hanna Shotwell, and Mary Lindley Murray. It was one of the first of its kind in the […]
learn more*Bennet Omalu was born on this date in 1968. He is a Black Nigerian-American physician, forensic pathologist, and neuropathologist. Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu is of Igbo ancestry and was born in Njikoka, Anambra, in southeastern Nigeria. The sixth of seven siblings, he was born during the Nigerian Civil War, which caused his family to flee from their […]
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