Hub staff, Jan 15
Eleven faculty, staff members, and students from Johns Hopkins University and Medicine have been selected to receive the 2025 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Community Service. This special honor recognizes those from Hopkins who demonstrate King’s values of service and selflessness through their exceptional volunteer work.
They will be honored Friday during the 44th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Alvin “Joe” D’Angelo, vice president of operations at Suburban Hospital, will also be recognized with the 2026 Levi Watkins Jr. Ideals Award. Named in honor of Levi Watkins, Johns Hopkins Medicine’s first Black chief resident and full professor and the founder of Johns Hopkins’ annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration event, this award is given annually to a leader at Johns Hopkins Hospital who has made an outstanding contribution to the institution.
The MLK Commemoration event will also include keynote speeches from Nicole Cooper, chief external affairs and transformation officer at the United Way of the National Capital Area, and Melvin Wilson, executive director of Turnaround Tuesday. Register in advance for in-person or virtual attendance.
2025 Community Service Award recipients
Ama Apenteng
Clinical Research Manager, Pediatric Emergency Department
Every Sunday after services at Grace United Methodist Church, Apenteng volunteers with the church’s Elijah Backpack Program, helping to pack bags of groceries for elementary school students in Baltimore who face food insecurity.
Apenteng believes that when children are given opportunity, encouragement, and support, they can achieve extraordinary things. Her advocacy began during her high school years in Ghana, continued through her medical training and practice there, and remains an essential part of her life in Baltimore.
Festus Babarinde
Master of Public Health Candidate, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Babarinde’s lifetime of public service began as a volunteer camp doctor in Nigeria and includes his work rebuilding the Igboore Primary Health Centre and establishing the Concept Academy, which helps doctors prepare for the U.S. medical licensing exam. He provides free tutoring sessions to his colleagues and other students, and supports organizations like the Spinal Cord Injury Association of Nigeria and the BAARD‑Concept program, which he co-founded to improve the professional and personal wellbeing of doctors at the Federal Medical Centre in Abeokuta, Nigeria.
Read more: https://hub.jhu.edu/2026/01/15/mlk-community-service-awards-2026/
