Andrea Hayes-Jordan

"Some of the challenges I have faced have been in getting trained in pediatric surgery and in pediatric surgical oncology. When I applied to be a pediatric surgery fellow, I did not match the first time, second time or third time because there were no other Black pediatric surgeons. I am the first board-certified U.S. Black female pediatric surgeon. This was a huge hurdle to overcome. It was challenging at first, but I love my profession now."

"Even though I wasn’t sure of the effectiveness, I was sure that doing nothing wasn’t going to make anything better,"

"It takes 10-14 hours, sometimes 20 hours. The longest operation I’ve done is 22 hours. That individual had over 2,000 tumors"

"My greatest satisfaction is being able to treat children all over the world for a disease that a few years ago, was considered hopeless."