UGA College of Public Health
Global Health Institute
Spring Seminar Series

The Black Angels: The Untold Story of Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis

Please join us Thursday, March 28 at 4:00 p.m. via Zoom or in person, as writer and author Maria Smilios leads a conversation about her book “The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis.” Spanning the Great Depression and moving through World War II and beyond, the book tells the story of a group of intrepid young women, the “Black Angels,” who, for twenty years, risked their lives working under dreadful conditions while caring for the city’s poorest.

Everyone is welcome to attend! Contact Juliet Sekandi for additional information.

• Join the Zoom Meeting here.
• Attend in person at Emory Rollins School of Public Health, CLAUDIA NANCE ROLLINS BUILDING (CNR) 1000 in Atlanta. A book signing and reception will follow from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.

About the Speaker: Maria Smilios is the author of The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis. A native of New York City, Maria holds a Masters of Arts from Boston University in Religion & Literature where she was a Henry Luce Scholar and a Presidential Scholar. She also taught Essay and Research writing in the university’s writing program. In 2007, she left Boston and moved back to New York City to teach at an all-girls high school. There she created and ran an intensive summer writing program for teens. Maria formerly worked as a development editor in the Biomedical Sciences editing books in lung diseases, pediatric and breast cancer, neurology, and ocular diseases. It was during this time when she read a line in a book that led her to discover the story of the Black Angels. Through the writing of the book, she has become an advocate for making TB drugs affordable and accessible in TB heavy countries, supporting and working with organizations such as EndTB and Partners in Health. In the past, she has written for The Guardian, American Nurse, Narratively, The Rumpus, Dame Magazine, and The Forward among others. The Black Angels is her first book.

The event is sponsored by the Emory/Georgia Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center (TRAC), the Center for Healthcare History and Policy and Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Emory University Woodruff School of Nursing, and the UGA Global Health Institute.