Degree(s): Chemistry

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Undergraduate Institution: South Carolina State College (now University) (HBCU)

Undergraduate Institution: Howard University

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Photo Credit: NIH History Office

Mrs. Alma Levant Hayden was one of the first Black women to be employed as a scientist at a federal science agency in the United States. She began her career at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases at the National Institute of Health (NIH). It is believed that she was also the first Black scientist to work for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Mrs. Hayden led the team responsible for proving that Krebiozen, which was heavily promoted as an anti-cancer drug in the 1950s and early 1960s, was in fact only creatine. Mrs. Hayden later testified before Congress and at the criminal trials of the promoters of Krebiozen.

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