International Women's Day 2024
Raja Dutta
![Raja Dutta]()
Raja Dutta
Medical Director, Behavioral Health, Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency, California
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Native American woman in the United States to receive a medical degree.
As a child, Susan La Flesche had watched a sick Native American woman die because the local white doctor would not give her care. She later credited this tragedy as her inspiration to train as a physician, so she could provide care for the people she lived with on the Omaha Reservation.
In her remarkable career she served more than 1,300 people over 450 square miles, giving financial advice and resolving family disputes as well as providing medical care at all hours of the day and night.