Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr. and Mr. Vivien Thomas: Memories and Lessons Learned from their Outstanding Lives of Service
Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr. and Mr. Vivien Thomas: Memories and Lessons Learned from their Outstanding Lives of Service
The Twentieth Levi Watkins, Jr. M.D. Lecture will be held Tuesday, October 5, 2021, with Dr. George C. Hill, Distinguished Professor of Emeritus in Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology presenting the lecture entitled “Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr. and Mr. Vivien Thomas: Memories and Lessons Learned from their Outstanding Lives of Service” at 12:00 noon in Langford Auditorium. Sponsored by the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Office for Diversity Affairs, the annual Levi Watkins, Jr. M.D. awards will also be presented for faculty, medical and graduate students and house staff working to achieve equity, diversity and inclusion in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine.
This lecture was initiated in October 2002 to recognize the national leadership of Dr. Watkins, who was the first African-American graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine entering in 1966 from Tennessee State University and graduating in 1970 with honors. Ten years later, as a faculty member in the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins, he implanted the first automatic internal defibrillator in a patient at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Watkins dedicated his life to expanding opportunities for minority students in medicine and the biomedical sciences and to achieving health equity in our country. He passed April 11, 2015, while encouraging cardiac surgery fellows to consider coming to Johns Hopkins for further training. Dr. Watkins served on the Vanderbilt Board of Trust for eight years and was recognized as the Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt School of Medicine Alumnus of the Year.