A new study highlights the promising early impact of Sneakers to Scrubs (S2S) , a medical pathways program founded by Black medical students and former athletes to address the severe underrepresentation of Black men in medicine.
Data showed that in just its first year, S2S engaged over 2,000 Black male youths through sports-centered mentorship and more than 60 educational events. True to the program's name, S2S volunteers who wear scrubs host training sessions on topics such as concussion awareness and first aid, and to discuss a wide range of medical careers.
“We wanted to create an actionable and realistic way to help address the significant underrepresentation of Black men in medicine,” said Jameel Alausa, a fourth-year student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and the co-founder and CEO of S2S.
The study, published in Academic Pediatrics , found that early S2S efforts significantly boosted participants' awareness of medical careers, helped connect them to mentors and role models, and drove their enrollment in established medical pathway programs.
Black men make up an estimated 7% of the U.S. adult population, but they represent only 2.6% of practicing physicians.
That gap has real consequences: Research has indicated that when Black patients receive care from Black doctors, communication improves, trust deepens, and engagement increases, all of which can lead to better health outcomes.
Underrepresentation can also become a self-fulfilling prophecy, the study authors said. That's because many Black male youths lack Black male physician role models who can make the career path seem realistic and attractive.
In 2023, Alausa and a group of Chicago-area medical students — including several former Division I and professional athletes — launched S2S with the goal of connecting Black youths from middle school through college to medical careers.
“Given our own backgrounds as high-level athletes, we recognized that sports could be a powerful platform for connecting with young Black men,” said Alausa, a co-author of the study. “We wanted to leverage that shared interest to provide exposure, mentorship, and opportunities in medicine that many participants may not otherwise have access to.”
The S2S program is organized into three tiers — Explore Med (middle school), Experience Med (high school) and Excel in Med (college and postbaccalaureate) — and layers mentorship, tutoring, trainings and workshops onto activities that already draw in Black male student-athletes.
Mentors are medical students, residents and attending physicians who share both clinical and athletic backgrounds.
The program also serves as an on-ramp to three established pathways initiatives at UChicago: the Health Professionals Recruitment and Exposure Program (HPREP); Medical Careers Exposure and Emergency Preparedness (MedCEEP); and the Daniel Hale Williams Medical Bootcamp (DHWMB).
After S2S launched, Black male enrollment in all three programs jumped significantly.
Co-founder Marcus Allen, a former NBA player and fourth-year Pritzker student, said the growth reflects the power of building relationships before pitching a career path.
“You just have to build trust in the community,” said Allen, who is also a co-author of the study. “S2S started with me and Jameel going to nearby high schools, playing pickup basketball and then afterward talking about medicine with the kids we met.
"First and foremost, these guys have to know we have their best interests at heart.”
As part of the research assessment, the team also conducted qualitative interviews with randomly selected participants from S2S summer events. Nine of the 10 said they had gained a better understanding of medical careers.
“I was so focused on sports and not focused on anything else, but being with this program made me start to think about medicine as a future option,” one participant said.
Four participants singled out the value of having Black male role models, and others described how athletics helped them stay safe and academically engaged.
As a next step, the team is analyzing two to three years of longitudinal survey data on how S2S participants' confidence and perceptions of medicine shift over time.
To S2S co-founder Solomon Egbe, a fourth-year Pritzker student, the takeaways from this early evaluation are multilayered.
“For educators — medical and otherwise — our findings emphasize that meeting students where their interests lie can be a powerful tool for engagement,” Egbe said. “For practicing medical professionals, our results show that mentorship and representation matter. Using their platform to encourage the next generation can be just as influential as taking care of patients.”
Since the study period closed, S2S has expanded to organize programming in Los Angeles, New York, Cleveland and Milwaukee. The Chicago offerings now include a summer camp now in its third year and a program called Athletes for Academics (A4A), which pairs math and science tutoring with athletic programming for middle schoolers on the South Side.
The work aligns closely with UChicago Medicine's broader community investment on the South Side, including the Southland RISE initiative , which in June 2026 awarded $150,000 to S2S and 14 other community organizations running summer programs that blend mentorship, career pathways and safe spaces for youth — with many using sports and the arts as an entry point.
For Allen, the academic community has an essential role to play in sustaining that momentum.
“This is a niche program, but at the end of the day, it's a model that can be used across the board,” he said. “Medical students have a similar interest with young student-athletes, and incorporating medicine and different career opportunities within that space is doable — not just in Chicago, but across the United States, in the communities that need it most.”
The long-term goal is straightforward: more Black men wearing white coats and scrubs.
“ Sneakers 2 Scrubs: An Innovative Approach to Addressing Underrepresentation of Black Males in Medical School Pipeline Programs ” was published in Academic Pediatrics in July 2026. Co-authors are Marcus Allen, Jameel Alausa, Ahmed Abdel Naby, Johari Shuck, Abdullah Pratt, Elbert Huang and Nathaniel Glasser.
Academic Pediatrics
Sneakers 2 Scrubs: An Innovative Approach to Addressing Underrepresentation of Black Males in Medical School Pipeline Programs
28-Jul-2026