Joanne A.P. Wilson, MD, emeritus professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, has been honored as the recipient of the UNC Black Alumni Reunion’s James L. Lassiter, J. Kenneth Lee, Floyd B. McKissick Sr. and James R. Walker Trailblazer Award.
The Trailblazer Award recognizes a Black alumnus of the University of North Carolina who paved the way for African Americans during the first 20 years of integration at Carolina. The award was presented to Wilson during UNC Black Alumni Reunion on October 3.
Wilson graduated with honors from UNC in 1969 and enrolled at Duke University School of Medicine the same year. At the time she was the only Black student, and one of only three women, in her medical school class. She was elected to AOA and was president of the Medical Student Body.
When Wilson graduated first in her medical school class in 1973, just the second Black woman to earn a medical degree from Duke. She joined the School of Medicine faculty in 1986 and remained at Duke for the remainder of her professional career: 37 years as a leader, educator, and clinical gastroenterologist, until she retired last June.
The UNC Black Alumni Reunion Trailblazer Award is named in honor of James L. Lassiter, J. Kenneth Lee, Floyd B. McKissick Sr., and James R. Walker, Carolina’s earliest Black students.