Page 3 - Emory TFD Society BHM '21

Professional Career
Emeka M. Ndubisi, M.D.
Born of two teachers, Mr. LaSalle Leffall Sr and Lula Jordan, LaSalle Doheny Leffall Jr. graduated from Wallace S. Stevens high school in Quincey, Florida at the age of 15. He went onto Florida A&M University (FAMU) where he graduated summa cum laude, in Biology and English, 3 years later at the age of 18. He went on to be admitted to Howard University School of Medicine and graduated at the top of his class.
While at Howard he received
some of his academic instruction
from prominent African American surgeons, Dr. Burke Syphax, Dr. Jack White, and Dr. Charles R. Drew. Following his medical school graduation, he interned at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. Thereafter, he returned to Washington D.C. and completed his surgical residency at D.C. General Hospital and
Freedmen’s Hospital. He later
completed his surgical oncology
fellowship at Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center. He was the third African American to do so. The aforementioned Dr. Jack White, one of his lifelong mentors, was the first.
After his post graduate training, Dr. Leffall began his military service in the rank of Captain. In this capacity he served as chief of general surgery at the U.S. Army Hospital in Munich General from 1960 to 1961. In 1962, motivated by his love of teaching and practicing medicine, he joined the faculty in the Department of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine. In 1970 he became chairman of the department and held this position for 25 years.
His professional accomplishments are expansive and almost too long to be listed. Some of his career highlights are as follows; In 1978 he was elected as the first African American president of the Society of Surgical Oncologists. In 1979 he became the first African American president of the American Cancer Society. During this time, he launched an initiative meant to focus special attention on the racial disparities in cancer related mortality. In 1987 the LaSalle D. Leffall award was established by
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Black History Month 2021 I Surgeon Highlight