For the first time in history, an all-Black team of surgeons is leading Johns Hopkins Hospital’s flagship Trauma and Acute Care Surgery service. 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) make up the historic team
Breaking new ground at one of medicine’s premier institutions, these physicians represent a field where Black general surgeons make up just 6% nationwide.
“Between us, there are five MDs, two PhDs, and six master’s degrees—but more importantly, a shared commitment to serving the people of Baltimore,” Alia and Brown said in a joint Instagram post standing in the shadow of Vivien Thomas. “We are Black history. We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams. And we’re just getting started.”
In an interview with ABC News, Brown, a first-generation physician, highlighted the crucial role representation plays in medicine and the critical need for equity in healthcare for Black Americans.
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“The best part is that I get to save lives and have an impact every single day. To anyone who’s watching, realize that your dream and capacity can only be limited by you,” Brown explained. “And if you can think it, see it, then you can absolutely reach it.”
To those inspired by the team’s breakthrough, Shoyombo offered a simple message: keep going.
“The best part is that I get to save lives and have an impact every single day,” Shoyombo said. To anyone who’s watching, realize that your dream and capacity can only be limited by you. And if you can think it, see it, then you can absolutely reach it.”
Enumah noted that he was inspired to enter the medical field as a child, watching his parents serve their local community as physicians. With a mother who was a family doctor and a father who was a general surgeon, their work deeply impacted his vocational choice.
“Growing up in Columbus, Georgia, in the 1990s, I watched my parents — my mom, a family medicine doctor, and my dad, a general surgeon — show up to serve patients every day,” Enumah said.
The story of Black Americans at Johns Hopkins is a powerful paradox—defined by groundbreaking contributions and deeply rooted injustice. In 1951, doctors harvested Henrietta Lacks’ cells without her consent, creating the world’s first immortal cell line (HeLa) that revolutionized modern medicine.
Meanwhile, Vivien Thomas, a surgical technician, pioneered the life-saving “blue baby” procedure while classified and paid as maintenance staff. Eventually, the medical contributions of Dr. Levi Watkins Jr., who broke ground as the hospital’s first Black chief resident in cardiac surgery, performed the world’s first automatic defibrillator implantation.
But these five surgeons are breaking barriers at Johns Hopkins in the spirit of Lacks, Thomas, and Watkins by widening the path for every doctor following in their footsteps. Dr. Alia, Dr. Brown, Dr. Mannoh, Dr. Shoyombo, and Dr. Enumah are proving that representation on the front lines of trauma care saves lives and inspires future leaders. When access meets excellence, history doesn’t just get made—it gets rewritten.
