Mildred Mitchell-Bateman

Dr. Mildred Mitchell-Bateman, M.D. (1922– 25 January 2012) was an American physician and medical administrator. She was West Virginia's mental health commissioner in 1962, and was the first woman and African-American to hold the position.

In 1922, Mitchell-Bateman was born in Brunswick, Georgia to a minister and a registered nurse. From 1937 to 1939, Mitchell-Bateman attended Barber-Scotia College in Concord, North Carolina, and Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1941, she graduated from Johnson C. Smith University. In 1946, she received her medical degree from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. On December 25, 1947 she married William L. Bateman. Bateman was a therapist from Parkesburg, Pennsylvania. Mitchell-Bateman continued to practice medicine until her death at age 89 on January 25, 2012 from illness.

Mitchell-Bateman was hired as a staff physician at Lakin State Hospital in [West Columbia, West Virginia] while on internship at the hospital. She left Lakin for Topeka, Kansas and spent 3 years at the Meringer School of Psychiatry, and returned to Lakin as the Lakin State Hospital's clinical director. In 1958, she was named the superintendent of the hospital.

In 1962, she was appointed director of the Department of Mental Health in West Virginia. This was a high-ranking position in the government of the state of West Virginia, and she was the first African American, and the first woman, to achieve such an appointment. She held the position for fifteen years. In 1973, she became the vice president of the American Psychiatric Association. In 1977, then-President Jimmy Carter chose her to serve on his Commission on Mental Health.In 1973, she was appointed the Vice President of the American Psychiatric Association. She was the first African-American to do so.

Mitchell-Batemanreceived many awards and honors in recognition of her work. In 1974, Mitchell-Bateman received special recognition from the National Medical Association's Section on Psychiatry and Neurology. In 1995, she received the E.Y. Williams Distinguished Clinical Scholar's Award. She received the Wyeth-Ayerst Physician Award in 1996. In 2000, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychiatric Association. She also received the Governor's Award for Civil Rights Contributions in 2004. In 1999, the State Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia was renamed the Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in her honor.