Yvonnecris Smith Veal (born 1936) is an American physician known for her leadership and advocacy for

African-American women physicians African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...

. She was the first woman leader of the

National Medical Association The National Medical Association (NMA) is the largest and oldest national organization representing African American physicians and their patients in the United States. The NMA is a 501(c)(3) national professional and scientific organization repr ...

Board of Trustees and one of the first African-American students at the Medical College of Virginia.

Early life and education

Born Yvonnecris Smith in Ahoskie, North Carolina, she had ten siblings including the Tuskegee airmen,

Graham Graham and Graeme may refer to: People * Graham (given name), an English-language given name * Graham (surname), an English-language surname * Graeme (surname), an English-language surname * Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer * Clan G ...

and Reginald. She attended

Hampton University Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association af ...

(then Institute) for her undergraduate education, graduating in 1957. She then attended the Medical College of Virginia, becoming its fifth African-American student; black students were not allowed to attend the white students' graduation ceremony. This affront prompted Veal to become an activist for African-Americans in medicine throughout her career and to join the

immediately after graduation. Despite discrimination, she graduated in 1962 and moved to Brooklyn, New York City, to become a resident in pediatrics at the Kings County Hospital Center.

Career

Veal began her career as a private practice physician in New York City. She began to take on leadership roles in various community health centers during the 1970s. In 1984, she became an occupational physician when she began to work for the United States Postal Service, the organization where she would stay for the remainder of her career. In 1993, Veal was promoted to Senior Medical Director and was still in this role when the

2001 anthrax attacks The 2001 anthrax attacks, also known as Amerithrax (a portmanteau of "America" and "anthrax", from its FBI case name), occurred in the United States over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 ...

threatened postal service employees. She was commended for her role in maintaining workers' health throughout the incident.

Honors and awards

* Chair, National Medical Association Board of Trustees (1989) * President, National Medical Association (1995) * Mary McLeod Bethune Award, National Council of Negro Women (1996) *National Medical Directors' Award, U.S. Postal Service (1997, 2002) * Pinnacle Award, Region One of the National Medical Association (2014) *Legacy Award, The Susan Smith McKinney Steward Medical Society (2016) * Member,

Delta Sigma Theta Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. () is a historically African American sorority. The organization was founded by college-educated women dedicated to public service with an emphasis on programs that assist the African American community. Delta ...

* Member, National Council of Negro Women * Member, American Medical Association * Member,

American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) is a United States-based professional society for health care professionals in the field of occupational safety and health. ACOEM is the pre-eminent physician-led organization that ...

* Member, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Veal, Yvonnecris American occupational health practitioners American women physicians African-American women physicians 1936 births Living people 21st-century African-American physicians 21st-century American physicians 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American physicians 20th-century American physicians 20th-century African-American women