Dr. Levi Watkins

Levi Watkins, a Tennessee State alumnus, was the Johns Hopkins surgeon who implanted the first automatic defibrillator in a human patient. He also pressed Hopkins to recruit more Black medical students.

• Performed the first human implantation of an automatic defibrillator.
• Longtime Johns Hopkins cardiac surgeon and diversity advocate.
• Inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame in 2004.