Sadye Curry

Sadye Beatryce Curry (born 1941) is the first African-American woman to become a gastroenterologist in the United States, and the first African-American to do postgraduate studies at Duke University Medical Center. Curry was born the youngest of four and raised in Reidsville, North Carolina, where she was educated in the public school system and graduated high school in 1959. She attended Johnson C. Smith University and studied biology and chemistry, graduating in 1963. Curry then attended Howard University College of Medicine and graduated in 1967, with postgraduate education at Duke University and the Washington D.C. Veterans Administration Medical Center. Her internship and fellowship in gastroenterology at Duke made her the first African-American resident there. While a resident, Curry researched liver transport and bile acid metabolism.^[1][2]

After completing her training in 1972, Curry became an assistant professor at Howard University and was chief of medicine at Howard University Hospital; she was promoted to associate professor in 1978. She was a founder of the Leonidas Berry Society for Digestive Diseases, an organization for people of color with careers as scientists, surgeons, and gastroenterologists named after Leonidas Berry, the first African-American gastroenterologist. She was also the first woman to serve as chair of the National Medical Association's internal medicine section.^[1][2][3]

Honors and awards

• Howard University College of Medicine Student Council Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence (1975)
• Kaiser-Permanente Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching (1978)
• Woman of the Year Award, Howard University College of Medicine Student American Medical Women's Association (1990)
• Member, National Institutes of Arthritis, Metabolic and Digestive Diseases Training Grants Committee in Gastroenterology
• Member, Food and Drug Administration Drug Advisory Committee
• Chair, National Medical Association (gastroenterology section; 1985–2009)
• Chair, National Medical Association (internal medicine section; 2000–2001)
• President, Leonidas Berry Society for Digestive Diseases
• Distinguished Internist of the Year, National Medical Association (2002)
• Board of Trustees, National Medical Association (2007–present)
• Chair, National Medical Association Educational Affairs Committee

References

1. "Changing the Face of Medicine | Dr. Sadye Beatryce Curry". www.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
2. "Sadye B. Curry, M.D.". National Medical Association.
3. "African American Doctors | Gastroenterologist NYC". Concorde Medical Group NYC. Retrieved 2016-02-26.