Joycelyn Elders

Elders was born in rural Arkansas. She and her seven siblings worked in cotton fields with their sharecropper parents. In 1952, she received a BA in Biology from Philander Smith College in Little Rock. She joined the Army in 1953 and changed her name to Minnie Joycelyn Lee. Following three years of military service, Elders attended the University of Arkansas medical school, receiving her MD in 1960. She worked at the University of Minnesota Hospital and at the University of Arkansas, where she served as chief pediatric resident. In 1967, she received her MS in Biochemistry. She specialized in pediatric endocrinology and became an expert on childhood sexual development.