Susan Barbara Gyankorama Ofori-Atta also de-Graft-Johnson was born in 1917 into the Ofori Atta royal family.  She was born in Kyebi in the then Gold Coast to Nana Sir Ofori Atta who was the Okyenhene and Paramount Chief of the Akyem Abuakwa traditional areas and his wife Nana Akosua Duodu. Her primary education was at the St. Mary’s Convent in Elmina circa 1921 and she was then sent to Achimota School in 1929 as a secondary school student.  She was one of the pioneer students and become the Girl’s School Prefect sitting for the Cambridge School Certificate.  Susan Ofori-Atta initially student to be a midwife at the Korle Bu Midwifery training College and graduated in 1935 after which she studied in Scotland.  After a few years of work she enrolled at Edinburgh University Medical School and graduated in 1947.   She became the first female doctor in the Gold Coast, the first Ghanaian and fourth West African women to earn a degree.   She became the medical officer in charge at the Kumasi Hospital and then took charge of the Princess Marie Louise Hospital for Women.  In appreciation of her pioneering work with malnourished children, the condition which she named Kwashiokor, creating a medical term that was used globally, she received an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Ghana.  An active Catholic she was an executive member of the Federation of Catholic Medical Doctors as well as a member of the Ghana Catholic Doctors Association.  She received a Holy Cross from Pope John Paul II on his papal visit to Ghana in 1980.  Susan Ofori Atta was a trailblazer for women who aspired to become physicians in Ghana.  She was married to E.V.C. de graft Johnson a barrister at law.