Helen Octavia Dickens

She donated papers from the latter part of her career to the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 (accession number 1994: 62) with a further donation accessioned in 2002 (accession number 2002:7).

In 1991, she was awarded the most prestigious award at the Penn's Women of Color celebration. This award was named after her, Dr. Helen O. Dickens Lifetime Achievement Award. This award was given to candidates who had a long history of helping Women of Color in the Penn and Delaware Valley communities.

She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1986.

During her time, working for Penn, she eventually earned an honorary degree from them in 1982 and earned one back in 1979 from the Medical College of Pennsylvania.

After leaving the hospital in 1967, Dickens opened a clinic at Penn that was devoted and specialized to helping and supporting teen parents. The clinic offered services such as group counseling, therapy, education, and prenatal care. After 2 years of the clinic being opened, in 1969, Dickens was then named the dean for minority admissions. Over the course of 5 years, she helped increase the number of minority students at Penn from 3 to 64.

In 1948, she became director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Philadelphia's racially segregated Mercy Douglass hospital, where she remained until 1967.

In 1943, Dickens was accepted into a residency at Harlem Hospital in New York City. She finished her residency in 1946 and was certified by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in the same year.

Following her time at Crane Junior College, Dickens achieved her B.S. from the University of Illinois in 1932, her M.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1934, and her master's degree in Medical Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1943. She was one of two women in her class and was the only African-American woman in her class.

Helen Octavia Dickens (1909–2001) was an American physician, medical and social activist, health equity advocate, researcher, health administrator, and health educator. She was the first African-American woman to be admitted to the American College of Surgeons in 1950, and specialized in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Dickens was born on February 21, 1909, in Dayton, Ohio. Born to Charles Warren Dickens and Daisy Jane Dickens, Helen Dickens was the oldest of their three children.