Oral history of Myron Weisfeldt

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Dr. Myron "Mike" Weisfeldt attended Johns Hopkins as an undergraduate from 1960-1962, completing an accelerated medical school program. He then attended the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, earning his M.D. in 1965. Weisfeldt went on to work as a physician at the hospital, an Assistant Professor of Medicine and, later, the Director of the Cardiology division at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Weisfeldt was the William Osler Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine from 2001 to 2014. He was also Physician-in-Chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 1990, he served as President of the American Heart Association. In this interview, Weisfeldt discusses his time as a student, faculty member, administrator, and physician at Hopkins. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral histories series.

Oral history of Levi Watkins

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Levi Watkins, Jr. was born in Parsons, Kansas. He completed his undergraduate work at Tennessee State University, where he majored in biology. He went on to become the first African American to be admitted to the Vanderbilt School of Medicine. Despite facing enormous prejudice, Watkins graduated in 1970. He completed his medical internship at Johns Hopkins, where he was the first black intern. He then went to study at Harvard Medical School's Department of Physiology. There, he completed revolutionary research on congestive heart failure. In 1975, Watkins returned to Hopkins and became Hopkins' first black chief resident in heart surgery. Watkins notably performed the first implantation of an automatic heart defibrillator. In this history, Watkins discusses his experiences as an African-American in the medical field in the middle of the 20th century as well as his career and education. This oral history is part of the Mame Warren oral histories series.