Joel Bervell

MEDICAL STUDENT AND SCIENCE COMMUNICATOR
Ron Brown Captain 2013

Joel Bervell is a Ghanaian-American medical student and science communicator. On social media, he is better known as the ‘Medical Mythbuster’ for creating viral medical content that is at the forefront of conversations about racial disparities in health care, the hidden history of medicine, and overlooked biases in the healthcare industry.

After graduating from Yale College and entering medical school at Washington State University, Joel became a highly respected social media content creator, with over 760K combined followers and 120M+ views. His videos breakdown complex topics about how healthcare still fails to serve marginalized groups. A gifted educator and engaging speaker, Joel has been sought after to share his unique perspectives with groups like Meta, Google, TikTok, the Clinton Foundation, General Electric, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on behalf of the Congressional Black Congress, and others.

Joel has been featured on Good Morning America, Business Insider, NPR, YahooNews, WebMD and has advised organizations like TikTok on efforts to increase Diversity & Inclusion. Beyond his social media channels, Joel contributes his expertise to various organizations to help recognize how digital media can be used to bridge communication between underrepresented groups and brands. He serves on councils including the White House Office of Public Engagement’s Health Care Leaders in Social Media, the Council for Social Responsible Media, and the World Health Organization’s ‘Operation Fides.’ He has collaborated with brands including Neutrogena, Google, Samsung, Listerine, Gushers, and the American Medical Association. Joel was named by TikTok as the top 2021 “Voice for Change,” featured by TikTok as one of 10 “Changemakers” on their inaugural Discover List, named as one of ten recipients of the 50K MACRO x TikTok Black Creatives Grant, a part of Meta’s 2022 We The Culture Class, and was a nominee for the AdColor Awards. The Smithsonian Channel chose him as a 2022 “Cyclebreaker,” and Scientific American named him a 2022 ‘Revolutionary.’ He was further selected by the National Minority Quality Forum as a 2022 40 Under 40 Leader in Minority Health and is the recipient of the National Medical Association’s Emerging Scholar Award, the highest academic honor presented to a student by the National Medical Association.