This year marks the 175 anniversary of the Dr Elizabeth Blackwell’s graduation from medical school, which today is SUNY Upstate Medical University. With her graduation, Blackwell became the first woman in America to earn a medical degree, and thus ushered in coed medical education.
This website is dedicated to sharing resources and news about Blackwell and other pioneering women physicians associated with Upstate who have changed the profession in many ways.
Elizabeth Blackwell Day presentation by Janice P. Nimura, author of The Doctors Blackwell, Feb. 7, 2024 (starts at 19:15)
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Some past Elizabeth Blackwell Day speakers
2019: Sharon Brangman, MD, Upstate chair of Geriatrics, Distinguished Service Professor.
2016: Danielle Laraque-Arena, MD, then-president of Upstate Medical University.
2015: Ruth Hart, MD, clinical associate professor of family medicine and clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at Upstate.
2014: Yvonne Maddox, PhD, deputy director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
2012: Shermian P. Daniel, MD, ambassador of Child Family Health International.
2010: Linda Gray Kelley, actress portrayal of Elizabeth Blackwell.
2009: Jane Brody, New York Times columnist
2007: Diane Wara, MD, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco
2004: Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, author of The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place.
2002: Perry Klass, MD, a pediatrician and author of the O. Henry Award-winning book "Love and Modern Medicine
2016: Danielle Laraque-Arena, MD, then-president of Upstate Medical University.
2015: Ruth Hart, MD, clinical associate professor of family medicine and clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at Upstate.
2014: Yvonne Maddox, PhD, deputy director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
2012: Shermian P. Daniel, MD, ambassador of Child Family Health International.
2010: Linda Gray Kelley, actress portrayal of Elizabeth Blackwell.
2009: Jane Brody, New York Times columnist
2007: Diane Wara, MD, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco
2004: Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, author of The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place.
2002: Perry Klass, MD, a pediatrician and author of the O. Henry Award-winning book "Love and Modern Medicine