Claudia L. Thomas

Claudia L. Thomas is the first female African-American orthopedic surgeon in the United States. She attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University. She was the first African-American and woman to be admitted to the Yale medical program in orthopedics. She strives to increase the number of minority students in medical school and to help decrease racial bias in the healthcare industry. While in her undergrad at Vassar College she helped form the Students' Afro-American Society (SAS), whose members pushed for the creation of a Black Studies program at the college. She has overcome kidney failure which was exacerbated by a hurricane and is a cancer survivor.

Early life Claudia Lynn Thomas was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, New York, by her parents, Charles and Daisy Thomas, and with her older sister, Catharine Thomas. Thomas was awarded the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Diversity Award in 2008 for her efforts in improving diversity within her field and for mentoring and being a role model. Thomas currently mentors middle school aged boys with her peers in Leesburg, Florida.