Drawing upon three decades of practiced expertise in medicine and higher education, Dr. Leslie Ray Matthews is currently retired. Having served the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, he was first hired as an assistant professor of clinical surgery and the director of trauma and surgical critical care in 2007. Subsequently, he was promoted to associate professor in 2014 and full professor in 2018 before his retirement in 2019. During this time, Dr. Matthews also served Grady Health System as the co-director of the surgical intensive care unit between 2017 and 2019, as well as the Mayo Clinic as a senior associate consultant in the mid-2000s. He commenced his career as an emergency room physician in the late 1990s.
Supported by a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from the University of Mississippi and a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Dr. Matthews went on to complete residencies in general surgery at Western Reserve Hospital, Conemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital. He also completed a fellowship in surgical critical care at the Mayo Clinic Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Now recognized as a fellow in critical care medicine and of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Matthews is certified in advanced trauma life support, advanced cardiac life support and pediatric life support, among other areas.
Impressively, Dr. Matthews was the first to speak on vitamin supplements for the Food and Drug Administration, supported by his expertise in vitamin D. Honored as a preeminent expert in vitamin D supplements and the research of vitamin D on ill patients, he has received a myriad of accolades for his work. In 2019, he was awarded a patent for the treatment of concussions and traumatic brain injuries using high-dose vitamin D, having thereafter treated the first patient to survive a traumatic brain stem injury using high-dose vitamin D in 2021. The same year, he received the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. Moreover, Dr. Matthews was distinguished with a resolution made in his honor by the Mississippi Legislature in 2015, received the Clinical Scientist Award from the Morehouse School of Medicine in 2012, and was most cited in the American Journal of Surgery articles since 2011, also in 2012. Among his many achievements, Dr. Matthews is also recognized for having his name permanently engraved on the Wall of Honor at the Royal Society of Medicine in 2019.
In the coming years, Dr. Matthews intends to branch out to related endeavors in the business sphere and become the chief executive officer of his own global company. He ultimately aims to raise awareness of the detrimental effects of vitamin D deficiencies and make a difference in the way vitamin D is perceived across the world.