Duke University School of Medicine Honors the Late Brenda Armstrong

The School of Medicine at Duke University recently unveiled a portrait of the late Brenda Armstrong that will be placed in the Trent-Semans Center for Health Education.

Dr. Armstrong, who died in 2018, earned her bachelor’s degree from Duke University, where she was one of the first African-American students to attend the institution as an undergraduate. She earned her medical doctorate at Saint Louis University School of Medicine where she was the only Black woman student for three of her four years there.

Dr. Armstrong was the second Black woman in the United States to become a board-certified pediatric cardiologist. She served as a professor of pediatrics at the Duke medical school. For more than 20 years she was the associate dean for admissions and then served as senior associate dean for student diversity, recruitment, and retention.

At the unveiling of the portrait, Mary Klotman, dean of the School of Medicine, stated that “Brenda was a brilliant physician, educator, researcher, and mentor, and her many significant contributions improved the lives of countless people.”