When you water your roots, you never know what can bloom — just look at Dr. Malone!
Dr. Nelson Malone began his journey at Johns Hopkins Medicine as a student but he did not realize he had familiar connections to the hospital. Nearly 70 years ago, his grandmother Marion moved to Maryland and would find employment at Johns Hopkins Medicine cleaning floors. The moment solidified the significance of starting his career aspirations as an emergency medicine doctor at the school.
“Most of the people who come from communities like I come from, you don’t see that often,” Doctor Nelson Malone said, according to WJZ-13. “We don’t see people making it out of these circumstances.”
Marion's Legacy Will Be Lived Through Dr. Malone
For Dr. Malone, his grandmother played a pivotal role in his life’s trajectory.
Dr. Malone credits his grandmother’s values of compassion, empathy, and service to becoming a first-generation high school graduate and later a first-generation college student and Harvard Medical School graduate.
In addition, Dr. Malone’s decision to become a doctor also stemmed from witnessing his grandmother tend to his sick grandfather.
“Seeing her be that care provider to him played a huge role in my decision to go into medicine,” said Dr. Malone, according to WJZ-13.
Beyond Dr. Malone’s career, Marion’s legacy is seen through his efforts to achieve health equity and social justice in the field. Dr. Malone also earned a Master of Public Health at Hopkins to gather skills to help underserved communities.
Although Marion recently passed away last month, she was able to witness Dr. Malone’s contributions and his achievement of becoming a resident doctor.
“I’m beyond sort of what my nana, probably most people in my family, would have imagined,” Malone said, according to WJZ-13. “And so it was a beautiful thing that you know, her very last year here, she got to witness me finishing medical school and starting my career.”
