Alumna reflects on groundbreaking career as a Black female gynecologic surgeon

Patricia Sanders, M.D., was the first African

American female to graduate from the USA

College of Medicine. 

As early as age 6, Patricia Sanders, M.D., knew she wanted to be a physician. Growing up in rural Alabama during the 1950s, though, she understood the odds weren’t in her favor.

“During middle school, my principal Mr. Lorenzo McCarthy, saw something special in me,” Sanders said. “He felt that my potential would not be challenged enough within a segregated public school system, and he encouraged me to attend a college prep school in Kentucky at the age of 14. So, I did. I moved away to receive a better education at the Berea College Preparatory Foundation School.”

That decision set the stage for the rest of her life. Sanders was the first African American female to receive a pre-medical degree with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1972. Shortly after, she became the first African American female to receive a medical degree from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in 1977, and ultimately she became the first African American female gynecologic surgeon in the state of Alabama.

Choosing to attend the USA College of Medicine was an easy decision, Sanders said: “Attending medical school as an African American during this time was still quite difficult, but USA offered me a slot and they really wanted me to attend. So I packed my things and went to medical school.”

During her time at USA, Sanders said it never really sunk in that she would end up becoming the first female African American graduate at the USA College of Medicine, even though she didn’t have any classmates who looked like her. “I was so young, I didn’t fully understand the magnitude of what was taking place,” she said. “I was just focused on becoming a physician.”

Sanders went on to practice gynecologic surgery in Birmingham, Ala., in private practice for more than 35 years until she retired in 2017. While her job was rewarding, especially rendering care to rural patients across Alabama, she is most proud of becoming a mother at the age of 40.

For more than 30 years, she has served on the staffs of Baptist Princeton and Brookwood Medical Centers in Birmingham. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Alabama Women Achiever’s Award from the Southern Women’s Archives. She also received the Women of Distinction Award from the Alpha Eta Chapter of the Iota Phi Lambda sorority Inc. She received the Medicine Award from the Omicron Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and was a recipient of the E.B. Goode Achievement Award from the Gulf Coast Intra-Medical Association. She is a lifetime grandfathered Board-Certified Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Although she retired from patient care, Sanders has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. She is currently exploring the facilitation of creating a modification of laparoscopic pelvic probes for the treatment of endometriosis, polycystic ovaries and pelvic disorders. She is also taking this time to write and publish her first memoir, chronicling her path of being a first Black female gynecologic surgeon in Alabama with its professional and personal challenges.