Summer Scholars Program at Johns Hopkins Bayview

A group of Summer Scholars participants.

Every summer, medical researchers and faculty at the National Institute on Aging and National Institute on Drug Abuse, as well as several Johns Hopkins University programs on the Johns Hopkins Bayview campus, host approximately 300 students. The Summer Scholars program aims to increase diversity in academic medicine and science, enrich the programs that we currently have, broaden the applicant pool for all campus-based programs and strengthen the future financial foundation for these initiatives through partnering and attracting new external support.

The Summer Scholars aims to serve as a national model to increase diversity within academic medicine.

Summer Scholars Programs

Annual Levi Watkins, Jr. M.D. Lectureship

Levi Watkins, M.D.

Every year, over 300 students are welcomed to the Johns Hopkins Bayview campus for the Summer Scholars Program, a partnership among the National Institute on Aging, National Institute on Drug Abuse and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Researchers and faculty from these programs recruit underrepresented minority students and those from underprivileged backgrounds with the goal of increasing diversity in academic medicine and science. To celebrate these students, Johns Hopkins Bayview hosts an annual lectureship, named in honor of Levi Watkins Jr., M.D., a leader in the field of cardiothoracic surgery who worked to enhance the culture of diversity and inclusion at Johns Hopkins. He was a tireless advocate for fairness and diversity, spearheading a drive to recruit minorities to Hopkins and establishing the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration.

Previous keynote speakers have included:

  • Renee Blanding, M.D., Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
  • Marie Bernard, M.D., National Institute on Aging
  • Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, Ph.D., University of Maryland-Baltimore County
  • Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
  • Jean Lud Cadet, M.D., National Institute on Drug Abuse
  • Levi Watkins, Jr., M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
  • Lisa D. Cooper, M.D., MPH, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
  • Crystal C. Watkins, M.D., Ph.D., Sheppard Pratt Health System
  • Nadia Hansel, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
  • Michele Evans, M.D., National Institute on Aging
  • Ivan Montoya, M.D., National Institute on Drug Abuse