Edris Rice-Wray Carson

Who is Edris Rice-Wray Carson?

Dr. Edris Roushan Rice-Wray Carson was one of the America's 75 most important women, a pioneer in medical research who helped to prove the worth of the oral contraceptive pill, and worked on the birth-control injection. She attended Cornell University, where she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority, and had a long career as a public health doctor, primarily in Central America and Mexico. She was a faculty member of the Puerto Rico Medical School and medical director of the Puerto Rico Family Planning Association. She founded Mexico's first family planning clinic in Mexico City. She headed the first, large scale, clinical trials of the first birth control pill in the late 1950s.

During the last days of her life, she lived in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico, and died at her home in San Andres Cholula, accompanied by her daughters and grandchildren, where her surviving family still live.

She was the recipient of Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Margaret Sanger Award in 1978.

She was of the Bahá'í faith.