MACDONALD FOUNDATION HONORS MIAMI MEDICAL TRAILBLAZER
Coral Gables, FL. The Board of Directors of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation has recently voted to fund a $100,000 medical scholarship endowment in the name of Dr. Dazelle D. Simpson at the Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN. Coming during the 30th Anniversary year of the Foundation, the scholarship program goes to assist Miami Dade County residents who want to pursue their medical degree at Meharry.
Dr. Dazelle Dean Simpson, a granddaughter of Miami pioneer W. W. F. Stirrup, was born in Miami in 1924, and graduated valedictorian from George Washington Carver High School in Coconut Grove. With the desire to become a doctor from an early age “so she could help others,” her path brought her to Meharry Medical College, graduating with Highest Honors. Her commitment to children led her to pursue a specialty in pediatrics. Upon completion of her residency, she returned to Miami where she practiced from 1953 to her retirement in 1995.
Over her six decades of service to the Miami community, a few of her notable accomplishments included:
- The first Board Certified Black pediatrician in the state of Florida,
- The first woman and first Black member of the University of Miami School of Medicine Admissions Committee,
- The first Black President, Greater Miami Pediatric Society.
Among many community organizations for which she served in a leadership position, the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation was pleased to have her serve as a board member for seventeen years, from 1997-2014. Dr. R. Rodney Howell, a fellow foundation board member and Professor and Chairman of Pediatrics, Emeritus at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, noted “Dazelle demonstrated excellence in accomplishing the very long list of ‘firsts’ that bore her name. She was a thoughtful, gentle pediatrician with firm and definite convictions from which she never strayed. As a physician she was an excellent example to our University of Miami medical students, as well as faculty. She remained loyal to Meharry, which recognized her excellence not only as a medical student but through her later accomplishments.”
Located in Nashville, Tennessee, Meharry Medical College is one of the nation’s oldest and largest historically Black academic health science centers dedicated to educating physicians, dentists, researchers, and health policy experts.
The Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation, Inc. has its origins with the establishment Doctors’ Hospital in 1949. Dr. John Tremper Macdonald was one of its founders, and the Foundation was subsequently named in his memory. The mission of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation is to “provide funding for programs and project designed to improve, preserve or restore the health and healthcare of the people in Miami-Dade County.” Since becoming a grant-making foundation in 1992, the Board of Directors has awarded more than $43 million, giving over 400 grants to organizations throughout the community. For additional information regarding the Foundation, please visit www.jtmacdonaldfdn.org; email: info@jtmacdonaldfdn.org.
