Jowan Watson was an NCAA Division I athlete, playing football at Georgetown University, when a major knee injury knocked him out for his sophomore season.
“That definitely impacted my psyche,” he said. But he was also jarred to discover that “there wasn’t a lot of work being done around preparing athletes for the possibility of losing that huge aspect of their identity.”
Now on the cusp of graduating from Harvard Medical School with an MD, Watson has worked to change the narrative by creating a first-of-its-kind residency training curriculum in sports psychiatry so future doctors can better help athletes in similar situations.
That work exemplifies Watson’s interest in helping patients navigate mental health and deal with the stressors in their lives — which in turn represents one aspect of his lifelong determination to help others.
Homing in on medicine and psychiatry
That commitment has taken many forms. Watson reaches people through teaching music. He touches hearts through faith leadership. He entertained the masses as a football player. But above all, he chose to bring his compassion and strength of will to the world through medicine.
“I’ve always had a passion for community and volunteerism and giving back, stemming from my upbringing in the church and my big family and the support that they have been,” he said. “I feel called to do this type of work.”
Through his time learning about medicine — first as an undergraduate, then during his master’s studies in biomedical sciences at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and most recently at HMS — Watson has explored a few different specialties. He has published on how the gut microbiome affects depression, how the sensation of vertigo is portrayed in popular music versus its actuality, and how mentorship can improve diversity in the medical field.
But once he discovered psychiatry, he was hooked. He worked with elderly patients struggling with periodic catatonia, igniting an interest in geriatric psychiatry. He helped other patients cope with a cancer diagnosis through expressive writing.
Helping student athletes come to terms with their new identities once college sports is no longer an option proved to be the most personal project he’s worked on yet.
“I see creating the residency program as a really great opportunity for us to be prudent and provide for individuals who are interested in sports psychiatry,” he says.
Watson will be furthering his knowledge of the field in general through a residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital psychiatry department.
Faith and mentorship
Watson said his faith and family taught him to approach everyone, no matter their backgrounds or beliefs, with love.
“Faith is the most important thing in my life,” he said. “It’s helped me in navigating patient conversations, respecting individuals’ perspectives and values and beliefs. It informs the way I interact with people at all levels.”
His drive to help others and meet them where they are drew him to become a mentor with the MV3 Foundation, which aims to empower Black undergraduate scholars who will impact the future of health and biomedical sciences, and an executive board member of Hope Medical Scholars, an HMS student-founded organization that provides an immersion program for underrepresented minority and first-generation students in New England. Watson also reached out on social media to let medical student hopefuls know he is willing to be a guide.
He has never lost sight of the importance of representation.
“It is hard to be what you don’t see,” he said. “Just providing visualization conveys that it’s possible and that you do belong in these spaces.”
So far, he has mentored more than 50 students, with some relationships lasting several years.
Coming from an underserved community in Miami, Watson is paying it forward and honoring the people who took the time to lead him.
“I wouldn’t be here without the individuals who have come before me, both in general in terms of my ancestors and my family and also those who have decided to pour into me as a learner,” he said.
His mentors include the first doctor he shadowed, Miami urologist Richard Davi; his high school football coach Earl Sims; and Jennifer Potter, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and advisory dean and director of the William Bosworth Castle Society at HMS.
Keeping the passions alive
In addition to his ambitions and mentoring activities, Watson keeps up with the hobbies that fulfill him when he’s not wearing the white coat. He and his wife enjoy playing video games and trying new restaurants in the evenings and on weekends. Football continues to be a big passion, and he follows college competitors through the season. He has played guitar since he was a child, inspired by the musicians on stage in his local church, and has kept that alive in college and medical school by teaching others to play.
“It enables me to combat burnout; keep up with the skill, my love for music, and my love for guitar; and learn different ways of teaching others and applying those to how I navigate medicine and medical education,” he said.
Guiding philosophy
Watson will speak at this year’s Class Day ceremony, where he plans to share a formative experience he had a few months before getting accepted to medical school: A family member and mentor who was a forensic scientist was shot and killed in the community where Watson grew up.
“That was a huge blow for me, especially about to go into medicine, committing to serve these same communities who have taken a lot from me,” he said. But the experience has also driven home to him that when a patient is in front of him in need of help, it will be his duty to provide that help, no matter what.
“That’s always the purpose that I have: to do what I know is right and to care for individuals no matter where they come from or the experiences they may have had in their past,” Watson said.
“I hope that the way I navigate relationships, including patient and collegial interactions, reminds people that life is incredible, that they are worth it, and that it is truly important to just be kind to everyone,” he said.
