2008 Class Book - Harvard Medical School

JOSEPH ABIODUN LADAPO
I was born in Ibadan, Nigeria and my parents moved to the United States
when I was five. After I completed grade school in Louisiana and Georgia,
we finally arrived in North Carolina, where I attended high school and college.
I majored in chemistry at Wake Forest University and was a decathlete
on the track team. My older sister, Jumoke, was also a student
there, and my younger brother, Patrick, eventually made his
way into Deacon territory too. Jumoke is now finishing a family
medicine residency in North Carolina and Patrick is a medical
student at Brown. My entire college experience was wonderful,
but the highlight was being admitted to Harvard
Medical School.
My experience at HMS has been incredible every step of the
way. After my third year, I left to pursue a Master of Public
Policy degree at the Kennedy School, as I had a longstanding
interest in policy and decision making. Enthralled by my economics
courses and sensing an opportunity to make a more
meaningful impact on policy, I transferred
into the Ph.D. program in health
policy. There, I was lucky enough to
collaborate with some of the leading
minds in economics and medicine. Most
of my work focused on the cost-effectiveness
of using noninvasive coronary
angiography in the management of cardiac
patients.
Four years later, I returned to HMS.
Now that I’m finally graduating, my next
stop will be the internal medicine program
at the Beth Israel Deaconess.
During my time away, I also met my
wonderful, incredible fiancée—wife, by
the time this prints—and we will be getting
married a few weeks before graduation.
I am incredibly happy that we get
to share our lives together, and I am
grateful to the Lord for his blessings.
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