Difference Maker Dr. John Rhodes

Airdate: May 2023

When you’re born into a family in which your grandfather and father are doctors and your mother is a nurse, it’s a good bet that playing doctor may lie in your future. Yet, once John Rhodes was placed into special education classes in elementary school the possibility that he would follow their footsteps into medicine seemed longshot at best, and the writing was on the wall. Only he struggled mightily to read it. It was only after he bombed the SAT, struggled through college, and overcame low test scores to get into medical school, that, at almost age 30, the would-be doctor was diagnosed. He had dyslexia. Armed with knowledge – and the testing accommodations he desperately needed, Rhodes passed his licensing exams and earned his white coat. That his winding journey took a whole lot of heart only makes sense for the man who today is one of America’s leading cardiologists.