The Journey of Florence Neal Cooper Smith
Florence Neal Cooper Smith has been fighting to end sickle cell disease for more than 50 years. She has been a tireless leader, increasing awareness of sickle cell disease and raising tens of thousands of dollars to improve treatments and develop a cure. Cooper-Smith’s devotion to finding a cure includes years of community-based education and legislative work in Virginia as well as national networking through the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
A native of Virginia, Cooper-Smith first learned about the existence of SCD when she was just a child back in the early 1940s. While waiting for a doctor’s appointment, she picked up a book and started reading. That book was all about sickle cell disease, and it ignited a passion within her to help those who lived with it. Since the ’60s, Cooper-Smith has been working to raise awareness of sickle cell not only in her local communities, but also state-wide and nationwide. Known as the “mother of sickle cell in Virginia,” Cooper-Smith is also the first Black woman to have a professorship named after her.
She is a graduate of Virginia Union University and completed graduate studies in pathology at the MCV Campus of VCU. In 1969, she organized Richmond’s first city-wide survey to determine the extent of sickle cell awareness in surrounding areas, and in 1972, she founded the Virginia Sickle Cell Anemia Awareness Program at MCV with Dr. Robert B. Scott, Sr. This ambitious campaign sought to educate the public about sickle cell anemia. Because of her efforts, Virginia now screens all newborns at birth for sickle cell disease.
‘This is God’s journey,’ says woman known as ‘Mother of Sickle Cell’. Channel 6 News, 2017.
Lifetime Achievement Award honoree
In 2022, Florence Neal Cooper Smith was the Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree. This award recognizes an individual Virginian whose career represents the highest values of public service and citizenship and who has made a substantial contribution to the good of the commonwealth. The recipient must be an individual whose personal or professional contributions span a minimum of 20 years and be a resident of Virginia.
Making an Impact Against Sickle Cell Disease
- an example of the impact of years of work.
