Eleanor L. Makel

Eleanor Lewis Makel was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Alexander E. Makel and Florence (Flora) Lewis Makel. Her parents ran a clothing store; her mother was active in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and in the Progressive Business Association.[1][2] Eleanor Makel attended Howard University, graduating in 1938.[3] In 1943 she graduated from Meharry Medical College.[4][5][6]

Makel was the first woman doctor admitted to a residency in internal medicine at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington.[7] She also worked at the District of Columbia Health Department, and in the student health program at Howard University, early in her career.[5] She was a medical officer in the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, based at St. Elizabeths Hospital from 1953.[8] She was the first black person to hold a professional staff position at the hospital.[9]

In 1963 Makel was one of the six recipients of the Federal Woman's Award,[7] presented to career federal employees who made significant contributions to their programs.[10] Makel was one of the highest ranking African-American women in the federal government during the Kennedy administration.[11] By 1971[12] she was Director of the Medical and Surgical Branch at St. Elizabeths.[13] In 1980, she was among the hospital administrators accused of discriminatory promotion in the lawsuit Daye v. Harris.[14] She gave an oral history interview about her career in medicine and government in 1983, for the Women in the Federal Government Oral History Project at Harvard University.[11][15]

Makel also held a teaching position at the George Washington University School of Medicine.[7]

Eleanor L. Makel married Gerald E. Roberts, a law librarian.[9] She died in 1992, aged 77 years, in Washington, D.C.[16]