"We've tried ignorance for a thousand years. It's time we try education"~ Joycelyn Elders M.D.

"The best contraceptive in the world is a good education" ~ Joycelyn Elders M.D.

"Health is more than the absence of disease. Health is about jobs and employment, education, the environment, and all of those things that go into making us healthy.~ Joycelyn Elders M.D.

Minnie Joycelyn Elders is an American pediatrician and public health administrator who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1993 to 1994. Valedictorian of her graduating class.

Attended the University of Arkansas Medical School and obtained her M.D. degree in 1960.

Dr. Joycelyn Elders was the first person in the state of Arkansas to become board certified in pediatric endocrinology. She was the first African American and the second woman to head the U.S. Public Health Service.

In 1987 then-governor Bill Clinton appointed Elders as Director of the Arkansas Department of Health, making her the first African-American woman in the state to hold this position. Some of her major accomplishments while in the office include reducing the teen pregnancy rate by increasing the availability of birth control, counseling, and sex education at school-based clinics; a tenfold increase in early childhood screenings from 1988 to 1992 and a 24 percent rise in the immunization rate for two-year-olds; and an expansion of the availability of HIV testing and counseling services, breast cancer screenings, and better hospice care for the elderly. She also worked hard to promote the importance of sex education, proper hygiene, and the prevention of substance abuse in public schools.