Loss of a Loved One Gave Physician a ‘Passion to Pursue a Career in Medicine’

A prevalence of asthma in the Black community moved Dr. Justin Jeffries to pursue a fellowship in pulmonary medicine and critical care.

Dr. Brandi Alexander Jeffries and husband Dr. Justin Jeffries both assistant professors at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, with their 6-month-old son, Cameron.

Justin Jeffries was born to a single mother in Tennessee when she was just 16. Awaiting a kidney transplant, his ailing mother died when she was 23. At the time of his mother’s death, Jeffries was 6 and his brother 4. His grandmother, who had already raised three children, took over raising both boys.

So goes a brief outline of the difficult early years in the life of Dr. Jeffries, who last summer completed a fellowship in pulmonary medicine and critical care at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV before becoming an assistant professor at the medical school.

Today, the faculty physician and his wife, Dr. Brandi Alexander Jeffries, both assistant professors at the school of medicine, have a 6-month-old son, Cameron. “We really feel at home here,” says Brandi Jeffries, a family medicine physician who was the subject of a Making the Rounds feature in 2021. “It’s a dream come true for both of us to practice with UNLV.”

“My passion to pursue a career in medicine began like many physicians – with the loss of a loved one,” says Justin Jeffries, who also completed his residency in internal medicine at the school. “I was a preteen when I told a teacher I wanted to be a physician. I remember vividly seeing my mother collapse and waiting for the ambulance to arrive at our home just outside of Memphis. The concept of mortality was foreign to me. My mother suffered from kidney failure. She died en route to the hospital of cardiac arrest. I remember the physicians who gave us time and space to process what happened while also being available for any questions we had. I think of this often when I am comforting the family of a sick patient. The importance of this time is something I know all too well.”