Fe del Mundo

Dr. Fe del Mundo pioneered numerous innovations throughout her more than 70-year medical career. A committed humanitarian, del Mundo dedicated her life to the health of the world’s children.
The first Asian woman admitted into Harvard, she pursued graduate degrees in America after receiving her medical degree from the University of the Philippines. She returned to the Philippines during World War II, and established a children’s branch of a Japanese internment camp and directed the Manila Children’s Hospital.
She headed the Department of Pediatrics at Far Eastern University for more than two decades and founded The Children’s Medical Center Foundation in 1957, bringing medical care to rural Filipino families with no health care, saving children dying of dehydration and establishing family planning clinics. Del Mundo also established the Institute of Maternal and Child Health, which trains doctors and nurses.
Del Mundo revolutionized Philippine medicine, making major breakthroughs in immunization and in the treatment of jaundice, and providing healthcare to thousands of poor families. She is credited with studies that led to the invention of the incubator and a jaundice relieving device. Her methods, like the BRAT diet for curing diarrhea, have spread throughout the world and saved millions.
She was the president of the Medical Women’s International Association; the first female president of the Philippine Pediatric Society; an honorary member of the American Pediatric Society; and a consultant of the World Health Organization. She has been honored with the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service by a private citizen, and 15th International Congress of Pediatrics award as most outstanding pediatrician and humanitarian. She died in 2011.
BLACKWELL RECIPIENTS
January 22, 2015
Dr. Janet L. YellenNovember 10, 2013
The Most Reverend Doctor Katharine Jefferts SchoriOctober 27, 2011
Eunice Kennedy Shriver-
April 23, 2009
Rabbi Sally J. Priesand -
April 24, 2008
Dr. Wangari Maathai Sc.D.'94, P '94, P '96 -
April 27, 2007
Dr. Priscilla A. Schaffer '64, Sc.D. '94 -
September 7, 2004
Bishop Barbara Clementine Harris September 9, 2003
Loretta C. FordSeptember 4, 2001
Madeleine K. AlbrightMay 15, 1998
Billie Jean KingFebruary 10, 1996
Wilma MankillerSeptember 23, 1993
Barbara JordanSeptember 27, 1991
Margaret Chase SmithFebruary 22, 1991
Dr. Antonia C. NovelloFebruary 19, 1988
Barbara Aronstein BlackOctober 9, 1985
Cicely SaundersMarch 8, 1985
Sandra Day O’ConnorFebruary 11, 1984
Hannah Holborn GrayFebruary 26, 1982
Agnes George de MilleFebruary 15, 1980
Mary Douglas LeakeySeptember 30, 1977
Mary S. CalderoneOctober 3, 1975
Antonia BricoJanurary 23, 1974
Frances Keller HardingMay 28, 1973
Judith Graham PoolJune 8, 1972
Marian AndersonApril 10, 1972
Mary LaskerJune 13, 1971
Mina ReesJune 14, 1970
Helen Brooke TaussigJune 15, 1969
Georgiana SibleyJune 16, 1968
Constance Baker MotleySeptember 8, 1967
Catharine MacfarlaneJuly 10, 1966
Fe del MundoJune 13, 1965
Annette LeMeitour-KaplunJune 14, 1964
Margaret MeadJune 9, 1963
Marty MannJune 10, 1962
Frances PerkinsJune 18,1961
Leona BaumgartnerJune 12, 1960
Miki SawadaJune 14, 1959
Elisabeth Luce MooreSeptember 27, 1958
Gwendolyn Grant Mellon