Profile: Alyssa Brooke Watkins, M.D.

by Johnnie Grant –

Alyssa Brooke Watkins is a young woman determined to pursue her dreams and make a positive mark in the world. Even at a young age, she has begun to do just that.

Since graduating in 2017 from Morehouse School of Medicine, she has been a physician in residency at the internationally renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where her concentration is in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She previously participated in Emory University’s Summer Science Academy as a residential assistant and mentor, and travelled with the Morehouse School of Medicine’s mission trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 2014.

Alyssa is the daughter of the late Audrey Craig-Watkins and James Watkins, Jr. Her mother was a registered nurse who worked in the Oncology department at Duke Medical Center in Durham, NC, specializing in cancer treatment. Ironically, in 1991 she herself contracted cancer, and succumbed to her illness in 1993, when Alyssa was still a small child.

James returned to his hometown of Asheville, where he was able to rely on the support and help of family members in rearing his children: his mother, Naomi Watkins; his mother- and father-in-law, Brenda Boston Craig and the late Joseph Craig); an aunt, Jean Watkins-Brown, and a host of other relatives and friends. Here the family also encountered nurturing educators and other guides outside the family: Maurice and Cynthia Washington of Walla’s Playground and Early Learning Center, and a number of caring teachers at Estes Elementary School and Valley Springs Middle School.

With that “village” to raise her, Alyssa graduated from T. C. Robinson High School in 2008 with a grade point average of 4.5. After taking college courses at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, Alyssa was granted a four-year scholarship to attend Clark Atlanta University, where she was a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society, joined Beta Kappa Chi, was on the Dean’s List, and served as a peer teaching assistant. In 2012 she graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Biology (with Distinction).

After earning her BS, Alyssa spent a year at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Center in Baltimore, MD. There she researched the differences between “Ideal” and “Non-Ideal” patients enrolled in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging, investigating the various markers that can be used in the predication of Type-2 Diabetes.

In 2013 Alyssa was accepted to Morehouse School of Medicine, and began fulfilling her true calling as a physician—following her mother’s footsteps into healing. In addition to student medical associations and organizations, Alyssa—Dr. Watkins—is a member of the American Medical Women’s Association and the National Medical Association.