Dr. Helen O. Dickens was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1909 to a former slave. She was a 1934 graduate of the University of Illinois School of Medicine, the only African American in her graduate class. After spending 2 years at Provident Hospital (the first hospital for African Americans in the U.S., founded by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams), she subsequently moved to Philadelphia where she attended the Penn Graduate School of Medicine. In 1945, she became the first female African-American to be board-certified in OB/GYN in Philadelphia. That same year she became the director of the department of OB/GYN at Mercy-Douglass Hospital.
In 1950 Dr. Dickens became the first African American woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons. She subsequently joined the faculty at the Penn School of Medicine. In her time at Penn she founded a teen clinic and pioneered the pap smear screening program for early detection of cervical cancer. In 1969 she was named Associate Dean for Minority Admissions. In that role she helped recruit African Americans to the medical school and opened the first Office of Minority Affairs in the country. She officially retired in 1994, but continued to work with the Office of Minority Affairs, later renamed the Office of Diversity and Community Outreach, to support students and implement programming until her death in 2001.
In 1950 Dr. Dickens became the first African American woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons. She subsequently joined the faculty at the Penn School of Medicine. In her time at Penn she founded a teen clinic and pioneered the pap smear screening program for early detection of cervical cancer. In 1969 she was named Associate Dean for Minority Admissions. In that role she helped recruit African Americans to the medical school and opened the first Office of Minority Affairs in the country. She officially retired in 1994, but continued to work with the Office of Minority Affairs, later renamed the Office of Diversity and Community Outreach, to support students and implement programming until her death in 2001.