Jane C Wright Research Paper

Dr. Jane C. Wright

Dr. Jane C. Wright was born on November 30, 1919 in Manhattan to parents Corrine, a public-school teacher and Louis T. Wright, a graduate of Meharry Medical College and one of the first African American graduates from Harvard Medical School. She attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, from which she graduated in 1938. Wright went on to graduate with an art degree from Smith College in 1942 and then graduated with honors, with a medical degree from New York Medical College 1945.

After medical school, she did residencies at Bellevue Hospital (1945-46) and Harlem Hospital (1947-1948), completing her tenure at Harlem Hospital as chief resident. In 1949 she joined her father in research at the Harlem Hospital Cancer Research Center, which he had founded, succeeding him as director when he died in 1952. In 1955 she accepted a research appointment at New York University Bellevue Medical Center, as Associate Professor of Surgical Research and Director of Cancer Research.

Dr. Wright 's research work involved studying the effects of various

Wright married David D. Jones, an attorney, and the couple had two daughters, Jane Wright Jones and Alison Jones. Also during her career, Cooke also collaborated with cell biologist and physiologist Jewel Plummer Cobb, another noted African American woman scientist. Along with her research and clinical work, Wright was professionally active. In 1964, she was one of the seven founders of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and in 1971, she was the first woman elected president of the New York Cancer Society. She also was appointed associated dean and head of the Cancer Chemotherapy Department at New York Medical College in 1967, apparently, the highest ranked African American physician at a prominent medical college at the time, and certainly the highest ranked African American woman physician. She was appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Board by President Lyndon Johnson, serving from 1966 to