Dr. Keith Ferdinand is a native New Orleanian from the Ninth Ward. He has spent his 40-year career as a cardiologist, working to eliminate disparities in heart disease — on the streets and in the communities that raised him.
In August of 2005, Ferdinand and his family packed their bags and spent four years working in Atlanta, Georgia, at Emory University after Hurricane Katrina flooded their home and heart clinic, Heartbeats Life Center. He and his wife, Daphne Ferdinand, founded the clinic in 1983. Daphne Ferdinand, a registered nurse, is executive director of the Healthy Heart Community Prevention Program.
“I returned home to service my community,” Ferdinand said.
Now a professor of medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine, Ferdinand is a career-long member of the Association of Black Cardiologists, a national group dedicated to achieving health equity.…