The Doctor Is In Meet Neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson

Dr. Benjamin Carson is not just your ordinary brain surgeon. For one thing, Carson- the keynote speaker at the ASHA Convention Opening General Session in Chicago on November 13- is a medical multitasker. He has been director of pediatric at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, MD since 1981, is co-director of the Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center, and also holds appointments in the departments of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic , and at the Johns Hopkins University School of . He’s the recipient of 24 honorary degrees and the author of 90 publications in the area of neurosurgery as well as three popular books. The first of those books is an autobiography, Gifted Hands, which chronicles his experiences from his inauspicious childhood in Detroit to Yale University to the University Of Michigan School Of Medicine. It was his mother’s determination that led to her son’s success. As a child he was at the bottom of his class until his mother turned off the television and assigned Carson and his older brother to read and write reports on two books a week. His mother’s strength of mind and will power became his, and Carson moved to the top of his class-eventually earning a scholarship to Yale and then to Michigan. It wasn’t until much later that he found out that his mother, with only a third grade education, could not read those book reports she insisted her children write. Today, Carson is the director and co-founder (with his wife, Candy) of the Carson Scholars Fund, which awards academic achievement by providing college funding and encouraging the recognition of the pleasure and opportunities that may be derived from intellectual pursuits. Carson is a believer in the power of the individual will and of the potential of the . If you want to achieve, you will succeed. Carson is dedicated to inspiring young people to find their way to success. His mother, Sonya, incidentally, went on to college and later was awarded an honorary doctorate.