Dr. Nehkonti Adams
In honor of Black History Month, we continue to recognize the economic, cultural, political, and social contributions of notable black immigrants and refugees who’ve helped shape the vibrant tapestry of America. Today, we highlight Dr. Lieutenant Commander Nehkonti Adams, an Infectious Disease Physician for the United States Navy and a humanitarian.
Nehkonti Adams was born in Monrovia, Liberia. Her mother was a nurse, and her father was a cardiologist. While their home country faced severe fiscal challenges, Nehkonti’s family proved resilient, bolstered further by a positive local community they cared for.
Nehkonti recalls when, as a child, her sister instructed her to play a game that involved staying silent and rolling across the floor of their home. But it was not child’s play; instead, it was the beginning of the volatile Liberian Civil War. Shortly after, young Nehkonti and her family fled their country and immigrated to the United States.
Studious by nature, Nehkonti traversed the challenges and adjustment of a new life in the United States. After graduating high school, she joined the Navy as an Undesignated Seaman. She left for her first deployment to Brazil, where she would learn more about the fate of the country she previously called home. While there, she met a displaced Liberian national who explained the civil war’s devastating toll. One of Africa’s bloodiest wars, it claimed the lives of a quarter million people and displaced millions more.
Intending to use medicine to improve lives, her humble beginnings of cleaning toilets in the Navy, combined with her life-changing experiences and perseverance, propelled her through the ranks. She eventually earned her doctorate in infectious disease and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and the Navy’s Director of Tropical Medicine.
From India to Thailand, Brazil, Tanzania, and Honduras, the role has since deployed Dr. Adams to over 40 countries, where she’s established capacity and capabilities, infrastructure of doctors, supplies, and medicine in nations where there had been little to none.
Today, Dr. Adams serves as Director of the Clinical Trials Center with the Naval Medical Research Command. While medicine is her work, she also uses it to accomplish other goals. While deployed, she’s advanced reading, art, and dance in marginalized communities.
“To get all the experience I’ve gotten around the world, I realize sometimes all it takes is one act to change the course of someone’s life, that’s why you can’t stop,” Dr. Adams says.
Others we are celebrating in honor of Black History Month:
2025
Alix Idrache, Army captain and pilot
Michaela DePrince, standout soloist with the Boston Ballet and Dutch National Ballet
2024
Guetty Felin, Haitian-American documentary filmmaker
Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian-American NBA Hall of Famer and humanitarian
Claude McKay, Jamaican-American poet and Civil Rights advocate
Dikembe Mutombo, NBA Hall of Famer, and humanitarian
2023
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning author
Trevor Noah, award-winning author and television host
Wyclef Jean, three-time Grammy award-winning musician
Rep. Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, Somali American Congresswoman
