Joycelyn Elders Biography
Joycelyn Elders served as the United States Surgeon General from 1993 to 1994. She is a paediatrician and public health officer from the United States. As a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, she was the second woman, the second person of colour, and the first African American to serve as Surgeon General.
How old is Joycelyn Elders? – Age
She is 90 years old as of 13 August 2023. Elders was born Minnie Joycelyn Elders in 1933 in Schaal, Arkansas, United States.
Joycelyn Elders Education
She graduated from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1952 with a B.S. in Biology and pledged to Delta Sigma Theta. She entered the United States Army in May 1953 as a 2nd Lieutenant after working as a nurse’s assistant at a Veterans Administration hospital in Milwaukee for a time. She was trained as a physical therapist throughout her three years in the Army. After that, she went to the University of Arkansas Medical School, where she earned her M.D. in 1960. Elders got his M.S. in Biochemistry in 1967 after completing an internship at the University of Minnesota Hospital and a residency in pediatrics at the University of Arkansas Medical Center.
Joycelyn Elders Family
Joycelyn was born and raised in Schaal, Arkansas, the eldest of eight children and the valedictorian of her school class. She was born into a poor, rural sharecropping family. Before returning to Schaal, the family lived for two years near a military shipyard in Richmond, California. She changed her name to Minnie Joycelyn Lee in college.
Joycelyn Elders Husband
She married Cornelius Reynolds, a Federal employee, for a short time before marrying Oliver Elders, a basketball coach.
Joycelyn Elders Books- Author
In an attempt to give her side of the controversy that surrounded her during her 16-month term as Surgeon General, Elders produced a book. In 1991, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women presented her with the Candace Award. In 1996, she was recognized as an honoris causa initiate into Omicron Delta Kappa at SUNY Plattsburgh.
Joycelyn Elders Sex Education
Elders, as an endocrinologist, was particularly concerned about young diabetic women becoming pregnant. If young teen women with diabetes become pregnant, their bodies are more likely to reject the fetus or for the fetus to develop abnormalities in gestation. To prevent these pregnancies, she educated her patients about the risks of early pregnancy, the significance of contraception, and the importance of taking control of their sexuality as soon as they reached puberty. Only one of the approximately 260 young diabetic women she treated got pregnant.
Elders, particularly in African-American communities, consistently lobbied for sex and reproductive education. She slammed outdated textbooks that claimed that only white ladies had naturally regular periods because white females were using birth control to keep their periods in check. Because “[black] clergymen were up on the pulpit stating the birth control pills were black genocide,” black women were hesitant to seek birth control.
Joycelyn Elders Career
Elders has served as an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas Medical Center since 1967, receiving a National Institutes of Health career development award. In 1971, she was appointed to associate professor, and in 1976, she was promoted to professor. Her research interests were in endocrinology, and she became the first person in Arkansas to earn board certification as a pediatric endocrinologist in 1978. Elders was awarded a doctorate in science. Bates College awarded him a bachelor’s degree in 2002.
Bill Clinton selected her as the United States Surgeon General in January 1993, making her the first African American and the second woman to hold the office (after Antonia Novello). Elders reacted to criticism at her confirmation hearing over an event in which she chose not to warn the public that condoms her agency had been distributing in Arkansas were determined to be faulty, with a failure rate 10 times the authorized rate. Elders said she “doesn’t know” if the decision was accurate, but she believed at the time that public disclosure may lead to a public loss of faith in condom efficacy, which would have been the greater risk. She was confirmed on September 7, 1993, after being a contentious choice and a staunch supporter of the Clinton health-care plan.
Elders immediately had a reputation as a divisive figures as Surgeon General. She was a vocal supporter of a range of health-related topics, as were many of the Surgeons General before her. She argued that the potential of drug legalization should be investigated and that contraceptives should be distributed in schools. President Bill Clinton defended Elders, claiming she had been misunderstood. Bill Clinton selected her as the United States Surgeon General in January 1993, making her the first African American and the second woman to hold the office (after Antonia Novello).
Elders was named Director of the Arkansas Department of Health by then-governor Bill Clinton in 1987, making her the state’s first African-American woman in this role. Increasing the availability of birth control, counseling, and sex education at school-based clinics; a tenfold increase in early childhood screenings from 1988 to 1992 and a 24 percent increase in the immunization rate for two-year-olds; and an expansion of the availability of HIV testing and counseling services, breast cancer screenings, and better hospice care for the elderly are just a few of her major accomplishments while in office. She also worked hard in public schools to emphasize the importance of sex education, appropriate hygiene, and substance misuse prevention. She became President of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers in 1992.
Joycelyn Elders’s Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $12million.