Doctors Valentine S. Alia, M.D. (second-year resident), Lawrence B. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. (seventh-year resident), Ivy Mannoh, M.D. (third-year resident), Zachary Obinna Enumah, M.D., Ph.D., M.A. (ninth-year and critical care fellow)  and Ifeoluwa “Ife” Shoyombo, M.D., M.P.H., M.S. (third-year resident) are now leading the hospital’s flagship Halsted service in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery

 

 

After decades of Blacks being excluded as students or doctors, and facing a gradual change since 1941, Johns Hopkins Hospital has reached a historic milestone. The five resident- team heading trauma and acute care are all Black.  The residents include Valentine S. Alia, M.D. (a second-year resident); Ivy Mannoh, M.D. (a third-year resident); Ifeoluwa “Ife” Shoyombo, M.D., M.P.H., M.S. (a third-year resident); Lawrence B. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. (a seventh-year resident); and Zachary Obinna Enumah, M.D., Ph.D., M.A. (a ninth-year and critical care fellow). Only one of the five surgeons is a woman.

Johns Hopkins movement to this historic moment has been long and steady. On June 12, 2020, Sherita Golden, vice president and chief diversity officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine, sent an email from the heart, addressing the two topics on everyone’s minds: the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, and the brutal murder by police of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man.

Through the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity, Golden marshalled efforts to recruit, support and celebrate all students, trainees and employees.

As its workforce moved closer to representing the populations it serves, Johns Hopkins improved patient care, advanced health equity, brought diverse perspectives to its research and education missions, and created a more inclusive environment for employees and learners.

While there is still a way to go, a number of “firsts” show Johns Hopkins Medicine is heading in the right direction.

In 2015, Robert S.D. Higgins became the first Black physician to chair any department in the school of medicine when he joined Johns Hopkins as surgeon-in-chief at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and director of the Department of Surgery.

In May 2020, Namandje Bumpus became director of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, making her the first African American woman to lead a department at the school of medicine and the only African American woman currently chairing a pharmacology department at any medical school in the nation.

In April 2021, Jessica Melton became president and chief operating officer for Suburban Hospital, making her the first Black president of a Johns Hopkins Health System hospital.

Each of these successes walked a path paved generations before them by Vivien Thomas, the pioneering cardiac surgery innovator who, in 1941, became the first Black person to wear a white coat in the halls of Johns Hopkins.

Since its founding in 1889, Black physicians were barred from admission to Johns Hopkins as faculty or students. But Thomas revolutionized cardiac surgery, developing groundbreaking techniques that transformed modern medicine…all without a formal medical degree. Though racial barriers denied him the credentials his brilliance merited, Johns Hopkins awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1976. Today, his legacy lives on through initiatives like the Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative and in the widely shared photo of the five residents, Thomas’ portrait hangs in the background, serving as a reminder of the significance of their accomplishments.

This history-making team doesn’t just come at a time when Black workers, especially Black women, have been increasingly pushed out of the U.S. workforce. It also comes at a time when systemic disparities persist across racial lines, yet a stronger presence of Black doctors is shown to improve healthcare outcomes for Black patients and communities of color. Black people comprise 13% of the U.S. population but only 6% of general surgeons nationwide.

The team agreed, “we often say that we are our ancestors’ wildest dreams.” And at Johns Hopkins Hospital, five surgical residents are living in this