Dr. Laura Ross Wolcott (born Laura J. Ross; July 16, 1826 – December 8, 1915) was the first woman to become a physician in Wisconsin and the third woman in the United States to earn a medical degree.

[1][2][3] She served as a consulting physician to hospitals, schools, and the Convent of Notre Dame.

[3] She was denied entry to the Medical Society of Milwaukee County because she was a woman.

[1][2] One male physician even published a false obituary of Laura in order for her patients to assume that she was dead, and thus find another doctor.

[1][5] Her eventual admission was largely due to the work of an older doctor, Erastus Wolcott.