Helen Octavia Dickens, MD, FACOG, FACS: A Lifetime of Healing, Advocacy, and Innovation

Helen Octavia Dickens, MD, FACOG, FACS, lived a life defined by firsts and guided by an unwavering commitment to reproductive health, education, and equity. Her career spanned nearly six decades, during which she repeatedly broke barriers for Black women in medicine and improved care for underserved communities.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1909, Dr. Dickens graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1934 as the only Black woman in her class. She completed her internship in Chicago before moving to Philadelphia to work alongside Virginia Alexander, MD, MPH, another young Black woman doctor, at Aspiranto Health Home. Founded by Dr. Alexander, the home was as a birthing center and general and emergency care site that served some of the most low-income members of her community—which, at the time, was the third-largest Black community in America.

Dr. Dickens became the first Black physician in Philadelphia to earn board certification in obstetrics and gynecology. In that same year, she was named director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mercy-Douglass Hospital in Philadelphia. In 1951, she joined the medical staff of Women’s Hospital—later incorporated into the University of Pennsylvania—where she ultimately rose to serve as chief of obstetrics and gynecology.

In 1953, she became the first Black woman to be designated an ACOG Fellow, at a time when there were few women in the specialty. She also was the first Black woman accepted into the American College of Surgeons. She became an ACOG Life Fellow on January 1, 1988.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Dickens established the Office of Minority Affairs in 1969, dramatically expanding opportunities for minority medical students and increasing enrollment from just a few students to dozens in only a few years. In 1967, she founded one of the nation’s first multidisciplinary teen clinics, offering education, counseling, prenatal care, and family planning services to adolescent parents. She was also an early champion of the Pap test, even providing the tests out of an American Cancer Society van that she would park in church parking lots.

Dr. Dickens persevered through seemingly endless adversities, created a legacy for herself, and blazed a trail for others to follow in her footsteps—and in doing so changed the lives of countless patients, families, and communities who may otherwise not have received the health care they needed. In uplifting her work this Black History Month, we also highlight the circumstances that made her achievements so notable and the history of the communities she served, as it is important to understand the context of the contributions we recognize during Black History Month.

Read more about Dr. Dickens:

• Building Foundations for Community Health
• Dr. Helen Dickens: A Reproductive Health Care Trailblazer and My Mentor

The national theme for Black History Month 2026 is A Century of Black History Commemorations, marking the milestone of 100 years of national observances of Black history. In honor of this theme, ACOG will be highlighting some of the many contributions that Black ob-gyns, physicians, and innovators have made to the field of obstetrics and gynecology. Keep an eye on this page and ACOG’s social media channels to learn more.