Eva del Vakia Bowles

Eva del Vakia Bowles (1875 – 1943) was an American teacher and a Young Women's Christian Association organizer in New York City. When she began working at the New York City colored YWCA in Harlem, she became the first black woman to be a general secretary of the organization. For eighteen years she organized black branches of the YWCA and expanded their services to community members. She received recognition from former president Theodore Roosevelt for her work during World War I on behalf of the colored Y.