Audrey Forbes Manley (born March 25, 1934) is an American pediatrician and public health administrator. Manley was the first African-American woman appointed as chief resident at Cook County Children's Hospital in Chicago (1962). Manley was the first to achieve the rank of Assistant Surgeon General (Rear Admiral) in 1988 and later served as the eighth president of Spelman College. Early life Audrey Elaine Manley (née Forbes) was born on March 25, 1934, in Jackson, Mississippi. Her parents, Ora Lee Buckhalter and Jesse Lee Forbes, quickly relocated Manley and her two sisters, Barbara and Yvonne, to Tougaloo, Mississippi, near Tougaloo College. She was the eldest of three daughters in a tenant farming family. Manley was inspired to pursue medicine after the death of her maternal grandmother as well as with the encouragement from her seventh-grade science teacher. During World War II, the Forbes family moved to Chicago after her grandmother could no longer care for her and her siblings. Education In 1951, Manley graduated as the class valedictorian from Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago. She then attended Spelman College, where she majored in biology, with a double minor in chemistry and mathematics. Manley graduated cum laude from Spelman College in 1955. She then continued her education at Meharry Medical College on a full-tuition scholarship and graduated in 1959. Nearly 30 years later, in 1987, Manley received a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University. Career In 1962, Manley began her medical career and completed her residency in Chicago by being appointed as the first African-American woman to be chief resident as Cook County Children's Hospital. During her residency, Manley taught pediatrics at the Cook County School of Nursing. In 1970, Manley moved back to Atlanta after her marriage and began to work at Grady Memorial Hospital's Emory University Family Planning Clinic as the Chief of Medical Services. She simultaneously began to serve as "First Lady" for the remainder of her husband's tenure as the fifth president of Spelman College and created initiatives such as the Health Career Program. In 1976, Manley was appointed as a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service. Over the next decade, Manley continued her medical pursuits in pediatrics and medical education at a number of institutions including the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, Chicago Medical College, Emory University and Howard University. Additionally, Manley studied sickle cell disease and fought for government