Joycelyn Elders

Joycelyn Elders grew up the eldest of eight children in a sharecropping family in rural Arkansas, picking cotton alongside her siblings before earning a scholarship to Philander Smith College. She went on to earn her medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, becoming a paediatric endocrinologist and researcher.

As director of the Arkansas Department of Health under Governor Bill Clinton, Elders became a nationally recognised advocate for comprehensive health education, significantly expanding childhood immunisation rates and access to prenatal care across the state.

In 1993, President Clinton appointed Elders as US Surgeon General, making her the first Black person, and only the second woman, to hold the position. She used the role to advocate forcefully for preventive healthcare, sex education, and honest public discussion of topics many politicians preferred to avoid.

Elders resigned in December 1994 following controversy over remarks she made at a United Nations conference, but she has continued advocating for public health and comprehensive education in the decades since, remaining an outspoken voice on the value of frank, evidence-based health policy.