# @yalesph on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CKwPuvDMSwB
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/12511939-yalesph-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/0cadfcff4c.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-02-01T15:00:25.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Yale School of Public Health (@yalesph) — https://gondola.cc/yalesph

## Caption

In honor of Black History Month, we will be highlighting the stories of Black Yale School of Public Health alumni, faculty and community members who shaped our school, public health, the country and the world. Today, we recognize Dr. Virginia Alexander, MPH '41.

Dr. Alexander was born in Philadelphia in 1899. She ranked second highest among medical aptitude test examinees after her entry into the Woman's Medical College of PA. Yet, African American physicians were discriminated against in many medical institutions, and no Philadelphia hospital would accept her for practical training. She moved to Kansas City for her internship and within a few years, she was back in Philadelphia, running her own community health clinic and serving on the faculty of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Subsidized by her earnings in private practice, Alexander founded the Aspiranto Health Home in her own home to serve Philadelphia's poor.

Alexander began her studies in public health at Yale in 1936 but left after a year due to health issues. She was keenly interested in health disparities. She accepted a position at Howard University where she was physician-in-charge of women students. She was awarded the MPH from Yale in 1941, in part, due to the public health work she did at Howard.

When World War II broke out, physicians from across the country were dispatched to military bases to care for the injured, leaving many groups at home desperate for medical care. Alexander volunteered for the government and was sent to the coal fields of Alabama to treat miners living in extreme poverty. She returned to Philadelphia after the War where she had a medical practice and advocated in Quaker circles, of which she was a member, for improved public health practice for African Americans. She died in 1949 from Lupus. She was 49. 

Image description: photo of Virginia Alexander. 

#BlackHistoryMonth #ThisIsPublicHealth

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thisispublichealth, blackhistorymonth

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