Ala Stanford

Dr. Ala Stanford is a pediatric surgeon, founder of the Black Doctors Consortium and R.E.A.L. Concierge Medicine, a national leader in health equity, a health care policy advisor, and former regional director of the US Department of Health and Human Services of the mid-Atlantic. A practicing physician for over twenty years, Dr. Stanford is board certified by the American Board of Surgery in both pediatric and adult general surgery, and she serves as a medical and health correspondent for national media outlets. Dr. Stanford gained international recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic using the infrastructure of her pediatric surgery practice to create a grassroots organization focused on education, testing, contact tracing, and vaccination in communities devoid of access to care and resources. She subsequently opened a multidisciplinary ambulatory care center in one of the lowest life expectancy neighborhoods in Philadelphia, where she continues to care for people.

Dr. Stanford has received many awards and honors, including being named a Top 10 CNN Hero, one of Fortune Magazine’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” and one of Forbes’s Most Influential Women. She also received the American College of Surgeons 2023 Domestic Surgical Volunteerism Award and the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Award, and the City of Philadelphia commissioned a street in her name. She lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with her husband and children.