Levi Watkins, Jr., M.D.

Levi Watkins, Jr., received his B.S. from Tennessee State University before graduating with his M.D. from Vanderbilt’s School of Medicine in 1970. As a medical student, he was selected to be a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society.

Dr. Watkins is a professor of surgery as well as associate dean of the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, where he has been a cardiac surgeon since 1978. Two years after joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins, he successfully implanted in a human being the first automatic implantable defibrillator, a device credited with saving countless lives.

Dr. Watkins was awarded the Vanderbilt Medal of Honor for outstanding alumni in 1998, and, in 2002, he was honored again when a professorship and associate deanship were established in his name because of his work for diversity in medical education. His life has been chronicled on PBS, and he has received numerous awards for his civic involvement and his achievements in medicine, one of which he received in May 2000, when the Guidant Corporation honored him for his pioneering work on the automatic defibrillator.

He was named one of America’s Top 15 Black Physicians by Ebony magazine in 1983 and by Black Enterprise magazine in 1989. Omega Psi Phi fraternity honored him as Man of the Year in 1987, and, the following year, he received Baltimore’s Best Citizen Award. His other honors include the Johns Hopkins Hospital Anniversary Centennial Award, the American Red Cross Humanitarian Physician Award, and the Towson State University Most Distinguished Black Marylander Award. He received the Doctor of Human Letters from Sojourner-Douglass College in 1988 and Meharry Medical College in 1989. He also received the Doctor of Science from Spelman College and Morgan State University in 1996 and 1997, respectively.

A member of the Canby Robinson Society, Dr. Watkins resides in Baltimore.