Audrey F. Manley

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Audrey Forbes Manley (born March 25, 1934) is an American pediatrician and public health leader. She made history as the first African-American woman chief resident at Cook County Children's Hospital in Chicago in 1962 and later became the first African-American woman to reach the rank of Assistant Surgeon General (Rear Admiral) in 1988. She also served as acting surgeon general from 1995 to 1997.

Manley grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, in a farming family. Inspired by her grandmother’s death and a supportive seventh-grade teacher, she decided to become a doctor. She attended Spelman College, earning a biology degree in 1955 (cum laude), then earned her medical degree from Meharry Medical College in 1959, and later a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in 1987.

Her career included leadership roles at Cook County Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. She joined the U.S. Public Health Service in 1976 and held several high-level positions, including work on sickle cell disease research and funding, and serving as deputy surgeon general.

From 1997 to 2002, Manley was the eighth president of Spelman College, and the first alumna to hold that post. Under her leadership, Spelman continued to excel academically, joined Division II of the NCAA, and earned a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

Since retiring in 2002, she has remained active with organizations such as the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and the American Academy of Family Physicians. She has received numerous honors, including an honorary degree from Tougaloo College in 1991 and honorary membership in Delta Sigma Theta. Spelman College’s Albro Falconer Manley Science Center was named in part for her in 2002.