Hattie Alexander, a dedicated pediatrician, medical educator, and researcher in microbiology, won international recognition for deriving a serum to combat influenzal meningitis, a common disease that previously had been nearly always fatal to infants and young children. Alexander subsequently investigated microbiological genetics and the processes whereby bacteria, through genetic mutation, acquire resistance to antibiotics. In 1964, as president of the American Pediatric Society, she became one of the first women to head a national medical association.

Hattie Elizabeth Alexander was born on April 5, 1901, in Baltimore, Maryland. She was the second of eight children born to Elsie May (Townsend) Alexander and William Bain Alexander, a merchant. Alexander attended Baltimore schools and then enrolled in Goucher College in Baltimore on a partial scholarship. She excelled at sports but was only an average student in her course work, which included bacteriology and physiology. Alexander graduated from Goucher with an A.B. degree...