Heval Kelli 15MR Recognized in Emory Alumni Association’s 40 Under Forty

Just a few weeks after the events of September 11, Heval Kelli 15MR and his family arrived in the small town of Clarkston, Georgia. More than six years before, the Kurdish refugees left their home in Syria and spent six years in a German refugee camp before heading to the United States. Kelli’s father, once a prominent Syrian lawyer, was injured, so Kelli took on the burden of taking care of the family. Every day, the 18-year-old would work on learning English and the American culture, then walk six miles to his job washing dishes at a Mediterranean restaurant right across the street from the Emory campus.

During the next decade, Kelli graduated high school, college, and medical school—and found himself back, just one block from that very same Mediterranean restaurant, but this time as a cardiologist at the Emory School of Medicine. Kelli pursued cardiology, with a research focus on prevention, including access to food and the impact of poverty on cardiovascular disease. “I stood in the back washing the dishes for the salads and thought, one day I will be at that school,” says Kelli and as he moved forward in his life and career, Kelli has been thinking about the American Dream. “People tell me that I am proof of the American Dream, but I tell everyone my American Dream is recreating the dream for everyone else who wants it.” Thus Kelli found himself back in the town where his American Dream began and that is where the Young Physicians’ Initiative (YPI) was born, with the goal of mentoring refugee high school students and inspiring them to go into medicine. He partnered with Emory, recruited medical students to mentor, and created a premedical after school program for high schoolers. The program has exploded. What began as one class in one after school meeting in one high school has expanded to four high schools and four colleges and it continues on. There is an ancient saying among Kurds, “Whoever taught you an alphabet, you owe them a book,” says Kelli. “America and fellow Americans believed and invested in people like me and it is my duty to give back and serve my country, America.”

About 40 Under Forty

Year after year, Emory graduates some of the most impactful young leaders in a broad range of industries. They forge partnerships, solve problems, blaze trails, and serve their communities wherever they may be. Emory’s Office of Alumni Engagement 40 Under Forty awards program annually spotlights selected alumni across a variety of vocations for having made a significant impact in business, research, leadership, public service and/or philanthropic endeavors.