Leona toiled away in various Northwestern labs throughout the 1930s, and then decided to go back to school. In 1942, she earned an M.S. in bacteriology and, in 1944, she earned an M.D., both from Northwestern. After completing her residency at two Chicago-area hospitals, she returned to Northwestern yet again. In 1946, she became assistant director of the Student Health Service—and, in 1950, she became its first female director. (3)
Yeager took the position at an exciting time for the Student Health Service, and at an exciting time for what was just becoming known as “young adult medicine.” (4) Until the 1940s, Northwestern students had primarily been cared for by a succession of individual physicians (including Dr. Sarah H. Brayton and Dr. Dorothy Grey) and by a small number of resident nurses, at several disconnected and relatively unsophisticated infirmaries. (5) It was only in 1945 that the Student Health Service got its first full-time director, and it was only then that the Student Health Service started to have a larger full-time staff, a system for providing comprehensive diagnostic and preventive health exams, and its own pharmacy and x-ray machines. (6) Yeager oversaw it all for 25 years—and, amidst all her other responsibilities, made sure to build up the Student Health Services’ gynecology clinic in particular. (7)
At Northwestern, Yeager also served on the faculty of the Medical School, eventually achieving the rank of associate professor. (8) She also tended to patients at Cook County Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, and Evanston Hospital—where she joined the staff of a virology lab and maintained privileges as an attending physician—and gave regular public health updates to the Evanston local press. (9) Her renown also extended beyond the Chicagoland area: as the author of over 20 articles and books, and as secretary-treasurer, vice president, and president of the American College Health Association, she became a prominent advocate for young men and women and the importance of their health and wellbeing. (10)
Yeager retired from the Northwestern Student Health Service in 1975 and moved to Arizona with her husband. In 1992, she received a Service Award for Northwestern alumni. She passed away in 1999, just a few months after her 91st birthday. To this day, a Northwestern Medical School scholarship fund endowed in her name supports the education and training of future Leona Brandes Yeagers. (11)
-by Serena Covkin, PhD, March 2025
Children: Georgia Yeager
Years in Evanston: 1930s-1975
Associated Address: 2727 Payne Street
1. Emma Florio, “Leona Brandes Yeager, MD, 1908-1999,” Northwestern Medicine: Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center, April 5, 2023, accessed March 10, 2025, https://galter.northwestern.edu/news/womens-history-month-leona-yeager.
2. “Evanston Girl Scouts Open Summer Camp in Wisconsin,” Evanston Review, June 28, 1962, 48; “‘Winnie the Pooh’ Will Open Children’s Theater Saturday,” Evanston Review, October 18, 1962, 78; “ETHS Girls Get ‘Lowdown’ On Wardrobe,” Evanston Review, May 6, 1968, 26; “ADPI Pledge,” Evanston Review, December 12,1968, 17.
3. Florio, “Leona Brandes Yeager, MD, 1908-1999.”
4. “Dr. Leona Yeager President of College Health Association,” Evanston Review, May 7, 1964, 9; Leila V. Phillips, “History of the Student Health Service,” Quarterly of the Northwestern University Medical School 26, no. 4 (Winter 1952): 308.
5. Phillips, “History of the Student Health Service,” 305-307.
6. Phillips, “History of the Student Health Service,” 307.
7. Florio, “Leona Brandes Yeager, MD, 1908-1999.”
8. “Dr. Leona Yeager President of College Health Association,” Evanston Review, May 7, 1964, 94.
9. “Evanston Hospital to Open New Virus Laboratory Aug. 11,” Evanston Review, August 1, 1957, 10; “Flu on Increase, Says Press; St. Athanasius School Closes,” Evanston Review, January 25, 1962, 7; “College Awards Alum Citation to Dr. Leona Yeager,” Evanston Review, November 21, 1963, 56; “Meningitis Case at N.U. Is Isolated, Officials Say,” Evanston Review, April 14, 1966, 9; “Report New Cases Of Hong Kong Flu,” Evanston Review, December 9, 1968, 4.
10. “Dr. Leona Yeager President of College Health Association,” Evanston Review, May 7, 1964, 94; “Dr. Yeager Gets
Health Unit Office Faith Tabernacle,” Evanston Review, May 1, 1969, 22.
11. Florio, “Leona Brandes Yeager, MD, 1908-1999.”