Dr. Audrey Forbes Manley

After a childhood spent in Tougaloo, Mississippi, Manley moved to Chicago, where she graduated from Wendell Phillips High School in 1951. Manley received a B.A. at Spelman College in 1955 and went straight to Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. After earning her M.D., Manley moved back to Chicago and completed her residency at Cook County Children's Hospital in 1963. While a resident, Manley taught education classes. While there, she became the first African American woman to be appointed Chief Resident of Cook County Children's Hospital.

Manley began practicing privately in 1965 while working at the North Lawndale Neighborhood Health Center. Two years later, she moved to San Francisco and continued her pediatric practice at Mt. Zion Medical Center. After marrying Dr. Albert E. Manley in 1970, she moved back to the South and became chief of medical services at Grady Memorial Hospital's Emory University Family Planning Clinic.

Manley then lent her considerable skills to the federal government. She became a commissioned officer of U.S. Public Health in 1976 with a rank of captain. At the Washington, D.C. office of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, Manley directed sickle cell anemia and other genetic disease programs and eventually became the first woman to direct the National Health Service Corps. She again focused on education by consulting on three movies about sickle cell disease and teaching Howard University students about pediatrics, as well as earning an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University in 1987.

Manley continued her work with the U.S. Public Health Service in Washington, D.C. She was promoted to flag rank becoming the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the deputy Surgeon General and acting deputy assistant secretary for minority health in 1994. She also was a member of the U.S. delegation to UNICEF and the UNICEF/WHO Joint Committee on Health Policy from 1990 to 1993. From 1995 to 1997, Manley served as U.S. deputy Surgeon General and acting Surgeon General, advising the nation on matters of health and medicine. Finally, in 1997, Manley chose to serve her alma mater as president of Spelman College.