Benjamin Carson, an American author of “Healing Hands” and retired neurosurgeon is an inspiration to me. One day, my dad asked my sister, my brother and I, how would we want to live when we grew up? My brother answered by saying he wanted to live with our dad. I answered by saying when I grow up, I want to make a lot of money; I went on to say that I would make more money than my brother and sister. My younger brother lives in Florida. My brother played basketball professionally overseas. He currently owns and operates DUNK basketball youth league. DUNK basketball youth league gives kids a true NBA experience including halftime shows, announcers, All Star games, etc. His motto is, “where we treat every player like a pro.” His league has close to 100 teams and over 800 kids. My sister works with a Housing Authority in Little Rock, Arkansas and she is doing well also. I always find the time to serve as a role model to children in and around the Dallas area. I often speak to kids throughout the DFW metroplex, encouraging them to be aware of how they present themselves and interact with individuals. I have a big heart and try to change the mindset of our young people about what they can do in life. I always ask the young people to guess my occupation for twenty dollars, whenever I am speaking to kids in the classroom. However, the kids have never guessed that I am a
doctor; I still have the twenty dollars. They always think my career is related to being a basketball player. I want to indicate that we do not live in an idealistic world and we need to teach people that we live in a realistic world, in order to be successful in this day and time.
Question: Please share a little information about your educational background, your current profession and why you do what you do.
Answer: I went into the medical field, when I did not pursue a basketball career. I had received advice from my dad that doctors make a good living. I received my B.S. in Biology from the University of North Texas, carrying me to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas). I performed research projects at Yale School of Medicine and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Cardiology at U.T. Southwestern Medical Center. I have worked in two departments led by three Nobel Prize Winning physicians, Drs. Al Gilman, Mike Brown, and Joe Goldstein.
I was the first African American male to obtain a Ph.D. from UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 2005, from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology. I spent an