Millicent Rosamond Coker Vann

Dr. Millicent Rosamond Coker-Vann was born September 29, 1941 in Lagos, Nigeria, West Africa to Frederick Godfrey Coker and Esther Lily Coker. She passed away on June 22, 2024. She grew up in Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. Millicent was the second of six children. Millicent graduated from Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She continued her studies in the Department of Biological Sciences at Purdue University, West Lafayette Indiana, and graduated with a Ph.D. in microbiology. She had an over 40 year-long career as a microbiologist that began as a postdoctoral fellow in National Institute of Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and included an appointment as lecturer at the University of Ife, in Ife Nigeria. She returned to the US as a visiting associate at the NIH in the Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies. She later served as the research director at the Arthritis Institute in Arlington, VA before launching on her own and operating two clinical laboratories that focused on arthritis research and included clinical testing.

She was an extremely proud alumnae of Annie Walsh Memorial School (AWMS) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She was one the charter members of the Washington Chapter of the Annie Walsh Old Girls Association. Throughout her adult life she provided fellowship, mentorship and philanthropic work to support Annie Walsh Memorial School, including her recent participation in the school’s 175th anniversary ceremony.

While completing her doctorate at Purdue University, she met her husband of fifty years, Willie Frank Vann. They settled in Montgomery County Maryland and raised their three children, Monica (Thomas), Jennifer (Timmons) and Willie, Jr..  She was an active member of Goshen United Methodist Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She leaves to cherish her precious memory her husband, 2 daughters, a son, 2 brothers, 2 sisters, two grandchildren (Sydney and Olivia) and a host of relatives and friends around the country and abroad including Sierra Leone.

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