When Shirley Marks entered Harvard Medical School as a student in 1969, she was not only the first Black woman to be accepted to the School in decades — and only the second Black woman ever accepted — she was part of a broader, diverse cohort of students entering that year who changed the face of medicine.
“We made history,” Marks recalled in a 2017 audio recording of recollections of her time as a student at HMS, produced as part of the Perspectives of Change exhibit. Developed by the Countway Library’s Center for the History of Medicine and the HMS Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership, Perspectives of Change tells the story of civil rights, diversity, inclusion, and access to education at HMS and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
On March 28, Marks returns to campus deliver the 2023 Howard, Dorsey, Still Lecture, highlighting her remarkable personal and professional journey as a clinician, a leader, and advocate for health equity and educational inclusion.
The awards ceremony is scheduled to take place in the Minot Room in the Countway Library at 2 p.m. ET, with a hybrid option for people who wish to attend remotely.
Building diversity, inclusion, and belonging at Harvard
According to a 2019 report, before 1969, only 64 African American students had graduated from HMS, and there were even fewer students from Hispanic, Asian, Native American or other underrepresented groups who graduated from the School.
Since then, more than 1,350 physicians from minority backgrounds have received an MD from HMS, according to a 2019 report on 50 years of diversity and inclusion at HMS and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
Notably, the year Marks arrived, she recalled that she was one of 16 Black students to matriculate and one of 11 women in her entire class, which was about 10 percent of the total student body. Today, women typically make up more than half of each entering HMS class.
A career focused on equity and inclusion for all
After graduating HMS, Marks built a career as a psychiatrist who is “nationally recognized for her efforts to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and for advocating parity in mental health treatment and access,” according to the National Institutes of Health’s Changing Faces of Health, which highlights the history of women’s contributions to medicine.
She has also served in a variety of professional and student associations to promote more inclusive medical education and health care.
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“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to hear from someone who has been, and who continues to be, such a dynamic advocate for diversity and inclusion, and who has made remarkable contributions to improving the quality of mental health care available across a number of communities, most notably in her home state of Texas,” said Joan Reede, HMS dean for diversity and community partnership.
Reede also noted that Marks’ career and work to improve mental health care for veterans, women, and incarcerated individuals, and her work across institutions in big cities and in private practice in small towns, has highlighted the fact that diversity is not just about race, ethnicity, or sex, but about recognizing and embracing the differences and common humanity of people from many different kinds of backgrounds.
“That spirit, which has guided her work all these years, is precisely what we gather to celebrate at this event,” Reede said.
Diversity Awards celebrate community values
In addition to the lecture, the afternoon’s program will feature a ceremony for the recipients of the HMS 2023 Diversity Awards, which celebrate individuals and groups from HMS and HSDM who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the School’s core values of diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
The annual Howard, Dorsey, Still Lecture and Awards honor the legacy of the first three African American graduates of HMS: Edwin C. J. T. Howard and Thomas Graham Dorsey, both from the Class of 1869, and James Still, who graduated with honors in 1871. A reception will follow the program.
