Nothing makes Dr. Tsion Abdi feel more connected to Baltimore than using her medical and scientific training to solve problems for people: whether that means working one-on-one to provide clinical relief or finding ways to break down barriers to treatment for everyone.
“The science of medicine is what really excites me, but what drives me is when I’m sitting across from the patient who needs effective care,” Abdi said.
The second daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, Abdi’s father came to Baltimore to study gastroenterology, and both daughters followed in their father’s footsteps.
Abdi is an assistant professor of medicine in the gastroenterology and hepatology division at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute.
She earned her M.D. from the Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed her residency at MedStar Georgetown University Medical Center before performing a fellowship in gastroenterology at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Abdi joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2016.
She credits a generous Hopkins mentor with encouraging her into a leadership role, and was appointed last May as Johns Hopkins Medicine’s medical director for patient access services. In that role, she finds ways to increase access to Hopkins’ world-class care for more Baltimore residents.
“Like most things, you have mentors you meet along the way who see things in you that you don’t see in yourself,” Abdi said.
