Sara Josephine Baker

An American physician who led New York City's efforts to reduce infant and child mortality in the early twentieth century, work she carried out as the founding director of the city's Bureau of Child Hygiene, the first government agency of its kind anywhere. In 1917 she drew wide public attention to the scale of the problem by pointing out that a baby born in the United States faced a greater risk of death than a soldier fighting in the First World War, and the maternal and child health programs she built in response, including standardized training for midwives and systematic well baby care, sharply cut infant deaths in the neighborhoods where they operated. In 1917 she also became the first woman to earn a doctorate in public health, and she later served as an Assistant Surgeon General. She is also remembered for twice tracking down Mary Mallon, known as Typhoid Mary, during public health investigations into typhoid fever transmission.