Elders, (Minnie) Joycelyn (1933– )

US physician, surgeon general (head of the public health service) 1993–94. She was director of the Arkansas Department of Health 1987–93 and a member of Hillary Clinton's health-care task force 1993.

She was born in Schaal, Arkansas, graduated from the University of Arkansas Medical School 1960, and became a paediatric endocrinologist, working on children's growth patterns and hormone-related illnesses. At the Arkansas Department of Health she promoted sex education, contraception, and abortion rights. As surgeon general she called for higher taxes on alcohol and tobacco and, being the second woman and first black American to be appointed to the post, was under heavy scrutiny by the media, resigning December 1994.