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Posthumous Honor for Trailblazing Alum

May 04, 2022

The American Economic Association has named Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Ed’1918, G’1921, L’1927, Hon’1974 a 2022 Distinguished Fellow.

Trailblazing University of Pennsylvania alumna Sadie T.M. Alexander, the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in economics in the United States, has been named a Distinguished Fellow by the American Economic Association (AEA).

Alexander, who earned her doctorate from Penn in 1921, is the first economist to be designated posthumously as a Distinguished Fellow “to the best of our knowledge,” the AEA said in announcing its 2022 award recipients last week… .

After working for a few years as an actuary for an insurance company, Alexander returned to Penn and became the first Black woman to both graduate from what is now the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and to gain admission to the Pennsylvania bar.

She was also the first woman to serve as secretary of the National Bar Association, and the first Black woman to be appointed assistant city solicitor for the City of Philadelphia, among other accomplishments… .

Read more at Penn Today.