The last time Matthew Johnson ’19 was featured on the Roanoke College news page, he was graduating as co-valedictorian of his senior class and preparing for his next adventure at Harvard Medical School.
Five years later, Johnson is about to graduate again, this time with a medical degree and a match with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he will spend the next three years in an internal medicine residency.
Attending medical school at Harvard has been “a blessing,” Johnson said.
“Just this morning, I was rotating through a diabetes clinic at the Joslin Diabetes Center, and I worked with the former chief medical officer of the hospital who is also now the president of the American Diabetes Association,” he said. “You come across these world leaders on a quite frequent basis, and it’s an absolute privilege to be able to learn from them and be challenged to grow in new ways.”
Johnson was born and raised in Almond, New York, where he developed an affinity for the outdoors and science. At Roanoke College, he enjoyed abundant outdoor activities and close relationships with his professors, all in a close-knit community that was a straight shot up I-81 to New York. He graduated with a degree in biochemistry and a double concentration in neuroscience and health care delivery.
“I really loved the supportive atmosphere at Roanoke. I had a lot of influential professors who made a mark on me,” he said. “I also love the outdoors, so I ended up holistically loving that area and growing in a lot of ways academically, personally and spiritually.”
Johnson chose to pursue medicine because he loves science, but also because he’s seen friends and family members battle cancer. That includes his mother, who was a 15-year breast cancer survivor before she died in 2017 from unrelated causes.
“Seeing how a health condition like cancer can dramatically affect someone's life, and the role a physician can play in supporting someone and treating someone through that, really made me want to do something similar with my life,” he said.
"I really loved the supportive atmosphere at Roanoke. I had a lot of influential professors who made a mark on me."
Dr. Matthew Johnson '19
Johnson is a helper in other ways, as well. At Roanoke College, he completed a series of community service projects and served as president of the society for pre-health honors students, where he helped create a mentoring program that connected students with alumni in the field. At Harvard, he is a non-resident tutor assisting fellow students and alumni with their medical school applications.
Johnson’s residency at Brigham and Women’s will last for three years, after which time he may do a three-year fellowship in a specialty. He isn’t sure where he’ll land then, but he is pondering a specialty in cardiology.
“I’ve seen how prevalent heart disease is and how it affects people’s lives in similar deep ways to cancer, so that’s something I’ll be discerning as I continue in residency,” he said.
Zoe Krut '20 is working as a clinical research coordinator in the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Krut graduated summa cum laude from Roanoke with a B.S. in biochemistry and public health studies. She also holds an M.S. from the Cedars-Sinai Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. At Roanoke, Krut conducted biology research with Professor Chris Lassiter, and some of that research was recently published in a medical journal. Stay tuned for more information about that publication and the other students who assisted with the project.
Reid Warren ’56 and Jay Whitcomb ’57 celebrated Warren’s 90th birthday on April 5, 2024, at Woodies Crab House in Maryland. The two met at Roanoke College in the 1950s, when they were roommates, and they have been good friends ever since.
Warren lives near Philadelpha, Pennsylvania, and Whitcomb resides in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Left to right: Reid Warren '56 and Jay Whitcomb '57 enjoy each other's company at Warren's birthday celebration.
Do you know an alum we should include in our next news roundup? Email us at rcmagazine@roanoke.edu.