{"id":89377,"date":"2020-10-23T14:51:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T18:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?page_id=89377"},"modified":"2026-04-05T12:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:30:20","slug":"rebecca-lee-crumpler-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/about\/history\/rebecca-lee-crumpler-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebecca Lee Crumpler (CAMED 1864)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1864, a 33-year-old woman named Rebecca Davis Lee (Crumpler)<\/a> (b. February 8, 1831) became the first Black American woman to earn a degree in medicine, awarded by the New England Female Medical College, a pioneering institution that became Boston University\u2019s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in 1873. Following her graduation, Rebecca worked with the Freedmen\u2019s Bureau in Richmond, VA, created at the end of the Civil War to help recently freed enslaved people gain access to food, housing, and medical services. She returned to practice family medicine in Boston, and later published A Book of Medical Discourses. Although she encountered prejudice and hostility as a Black woman doctor, she persisted in her life\u2019s mission: combating illness in women and children.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the Rebecca Lee Crumpler, MD Endowed Scholarship Fund<\/span>, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2026 Annual Rebecca Lee Crumpler Symposium<\/h4>\n

View the Recording Here!<\/a><\/p>\n

Read a summary of the Event Here!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Conversation: Following in the Footprints of Rebecca Lee Crumpler with
\nMardia Stone, MD, MPH (CAMED\u201979)
\n<\/strong>March 18, 2026
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Mardia Stone, MD, MPH, is an international public health and social policy expert specializing in crisis management and disease prevention in post\u2011conflict settings and serves as a senior consultant\/advisor to the division of global psychiatry, Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine\/Boston Medical Center.\u00a0She has served as a WHO consultant, Liberia\u2019s Ebola Response Coordinator and senior advisor, and helped establish the National Public Health Institute of Liberia. A founding Fellow of the Liberia College of Physicians and Surgeons, she led development of Liberia\u2019s national health and mental health policies and chaired President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf\u2019s transition team on health. She is co\u2011author of Collapse and Resiliency: The Inside Story of Liberia\u2019s Unprecedented Ebola Response.<\/p>\n

Program:<\/p>\n

5:30pm Welcome | Hee-Young Park, PhD, Dean, ad interim<\/p>\n

5:35pm Keynote – A Conversation: Following in the Footprints of Rebecca Lee Crumpler
\nMardia Stone, MD, MPH (CAMED 79)<\/p>\n

6:15pm Panel and Q&A
\nNahid Bhadelia, MD, MALD
\nFounding Director, CEID; Founding Director, BEACON; Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases,
\nBoston University School of Medicine; Adjunct Associate Professor, Global Health Security,
\nBoston University Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies<\/p>\n

David C. Henderson, MD
\nProfessor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine
\nPsychiatrist-in-Chief, Division of Psychiatry, Boston Medical Center<\/p>\n

Moderator: Sheila E. Chapman, MD
\nClinical Associate Professor, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine
\nAssistant Dean of Admissions
\nProgram Director of EMSSP, and an Associate Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine<\/p>\n

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Past Programs<\/h4>\n
2023 Annual Rebecca Lee Crumpler Symposium<\/h5>\n

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https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2023\/01\/19\/rebecca-lee-crumpler-md-symposium\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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2021 Annual Rebecca Lee Crumpler Symposium<\/h5>\n

The Legacy of Rebecca Lee Crumpler: What is Possible?<\/strong>
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