MOBILE - The National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture are featuring USA transplant surgeon Dr. Velma Scantlebury in their new exhibition titled “Opening Doors: Contemporary African American Academic Surgeons.”  The exhibition will be on display at both institutions through May 31. It is also viewable at their website: www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/aframsurgeons/. Scantlebury is featured in the section titled “New Frontiers.”

Professor of surgery, assistant dean for community education and director of transplantation at the University’s Regional Transplant Center at USA Medical Center, Scantlebury became the nation’s first African American female transplant surgeon in 1989.  She has been recognized as one of the Best Doctors in America and has served as a national spokesperson for Linkages to Life, an initiative to end the shortage of African American organ donors.  In her career, she has performed more than 700 kidney transplants.

Scantlebury earned her medical degree from Columbia University, followed by an internship and residency in general surgery at Harlem Hospital Center in New York.  She completed her fellowship training in transplantation surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as an assistant professor of surgery in 1989 prior to her appointment at USA.