Christiana Care transplant surgeon to speak at Trabant University Center

8:58 a.m., Feb. 16, 2016--Dr. Velma P. Scantlebury, associate chief of transplant surgery at Christiana Care, will be the featured speaker in a “Making Black History” presentation sponsored by the University of Delaware Minority Association of Pre-Med Students (MAPS).

Scantlebury, the nation's first African American female transplant surgeon, will discuss her experiences at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 23, in Multipurpose Room C of the Trabant University Center.

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June 6-9: Food and culture series

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• June 6-9: Food and culture series
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Scantlebury became the nation’s first African American female transplant surgeon in 1989, and since has performed more than 1,000 kidney transplants.

She has served as a national spokesperson for Linkages to Life, an initiative to address the shortage of African American donors, and has been recognized by BestDoctors.com.

Scantlebury earned her medical degree from Columbia University in New York City and was an intern and resident in general surgery at Harlem Hospital Center in New York City. She completed her fellowship training in transplantation surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and then joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as an assistant professor of surgery in 1989. 

Before joining Christiana Care, she was professor of surgery, assistant dean for community education and director of transplantation at the University of Southern Alabama in Mobile.

Scantlebury’s special interests include: researching the end results of donation and transplantation in African-Americans; increasing organ donation in the African-American community through education and awareness; increasing the incidence of living donor transplantation by education; and treating viral infections in kidneys.