Sandusky native always wanted to be doctor

SANDUSKY — Sandusky native Dr. Leon McDougle knew when he was about 10 years old that he wanted to be a doctor. The Sandusky High School Class of 1980 graduate completed that ambition — he's a practicing family doctor in Columbus. But he's also a top campus administrator at Ohio State University, serving as the associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the Wexner Medical Center. And he's a leader in his field. He's president of the National Medical Association and has been leading efforts to persuade African Americans in Ohio and elsewhere to take the COVID-19 vaccinations. As a boy, McDougle was inspired to become a doctor by hearing stories about Dr. Waudell William Hunter, a pioneering Black doctor in Sandusky who died in 1975. Hunted graduated from the Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1934, the only Black doctor in a class of 86. Sandusky NAACP president Daryl Murphy knew McDougle at Sandusky High School, where McDougle was a member of the basketball team. Murphy remembers that McDougle "was a great basketball player" but also a good student who took his studies seriously. "I was a student-athlete, and I stress that even now when I speak to people," McDougle said. McDougle went on to play basketball at the University of Toledo, where he majored in biology. The school was known to have a good pre-med program, McDougle said. McDougle's next stop was the Ohio State College of Medicine, where he was one of only six Black students in a group of about 200. "We all stuck together and did our work," he said. McDougle then worked as a resident in a Navy hospital at Camp Pendleton, California, where he was the only African American in a group of 12. He also served as a Navy officer, rising to the rank of commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve. As the current president of the National Medical Association, McDougle appointed a committee of Black doctors, including infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists, to study the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. "We look at the data from the perspective of Black doctors serving the Black community," McDougle said. The panel noted that thousands of Black people participated in trials for the two vaccines, about 10% of the total, and found that the vaccines were safe and effective. "We are confident in the findings," said McDougle, who has not received the vaccine yet but tells his patients he'll get it as soon as he's allowed. McDougle will be the special guest star in a virtual town hall meeting the Sandusky NAACP will have at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 25, at the city of Sandusky's Facebook page, Murphy said. "We want to get the community ready to take the vaccine," Murphy said. "We feel it's important to have Dr. McDougle because he's an African American doctor," Murphy said. "He is a hometown hero in my eyes." McDougle says it would be "wonderful" if he could inspire young African Americans in Ohio to become doctors, just as Waudell William Hunter inspired him. As the chief diversity officer at Wexner, "part of what I do is recruit people to become medical doctors," McDougle said.