Kizzmekia Corbett helped develop a COVID vaccine. Her NC hometown named a day for her.

This story was updated Jan. 18, 2021, to clarify the location where Corbett attended college.

Kizzmekia Corbett drew national headlines — and a shout-out from Dr. Anthony Fauci — last month for her research that led to one of two authorized COVID-19 vaccines.

Now she can say she’s got a day named after her. Her former hometown of Hillsborough declared Jan. 12, 2021, as Dr. Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Corbett Day.

“The town of Hillsborough has been extremely excited about your participation in developing one of our vaccines to get us past this pandemic,” said Mayor Jenn Weaver, who read the proclamation Monday night.

“There are so many people in this community cheering you on and proud of you,” she added.

The proclamation from the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners noted not only her research, but also her position as a prominent Black scientist to educate the public about the coronavirus and the Black community.

Corbett, born in Hurdle Mills, was raised in Hillsborough and graduated from Orange High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and her doctorate in microbiology and immunology from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2014, before joining the NIH researching viral pathology.

“It is absolutely amazing to be recognized by my hometown,” Corbett said in a statement ahead of Monday’s meeting.

Corbett served as a lead scientist on the development of the Moderna vaccine, one of only two COVID-19 vaccines to earn emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In recent months, she has become a prominent figure in the nation’s conversation over vaccine safety. In particular, her efforts to assuage fears in the Black community earned praise from Fauci, the nation’s lead infectious disease expert.

“[Corbett] is an African American scientist who is right at the forefront of the development of the vaccine,” Fauci said in December. “So the first thing you might want to say to my African American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you’re going to be taking was developed by an African American woman. And that is just a fact.”

Addressing vaccine anxiety

As part of her continued efforts to address vaccine anxiety, Corbett appeared last week alongside the Rev. Jesse Jackson at Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.

She spoke of disparities in the American health care system, and historical abuses of minority communities, as root causes of these fears.

“I know we are not going to get over the hump of vaccine hesitancy in this one instance,” she said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “But hopefully as time progresses we can start to rebuild some of that trust and really open up those lines of communication from the scientific perspective back to the communities so we can get the ball rolling and start to save lives from COVID and other diseases.”

Due to Corbett’s noteworthy achievements in COVID-19 research, The News & Observer named her the Tar Heel of the Month in June, which honors those who have made significant contributions to North Carolina and beyond.

“It goes without saying that my roots in Hillsborough, North Carolina, play an important role in the scientist I have become,” Corbett said in her statement. “This is an honor that I will hold dear for a lifetime.”

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 4:52 PM.