James Puckette Carter, MD, PhD (1933-2014)

Dr. Carter served on the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine faculty from 1965 to 1976. He was the first African American faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics and the first full-time African American on the VUSM faculty.

He was born in Chicago in 1933. He graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1954 and earned an MD from Northwestern University School of Medicine in 1957. Carter earned an MS in parasitology and a PhD in nutrition in 1963 from Columbia University.

After training, he came to VUSM as a staff pediatrician and nutritionist with appointments in pediatrics and biochemistry from 1965-1976. He then moved to Tulane University School of Medicine where he was the inaugural chair of the Department of Nutrition and served the rest of his academic career there.