Dr. David Watt, a 30 year volunteer at the Lawndale Christian Health Center, was honored by Northwestern Medicine with the 2017 Humanitarian Award. Watt was one of five staff members presented with awards for their extraordinary contributions to the community and embodying the legacy of the Reverence Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Watt is an orthopaedic surgeon at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital.

David Watt, MD, orthopaedics at Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical Group, was recognized for his international and local volunteer work. Dr. Watt’s first medical mission trip took place when he was studying to become a doctor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. His volunteer work, including with the group MedSend, has taken him around the globe to places like the Ivory Coast, China and Mexico, while he also found ways to contribute at home serving his community through volunteering as a team physician, providing free surgeries to international patients in need, mentoring students and, with his wife, donating an anatomy lab to Wheaton College. In 2016, he retired from his volunteer position at the Lawndale Christian Health Center, after 30 years of providing orthopaedic care to Chicago’s underserved west side. Dr. Watt is a resident of Wheaton, Ill. To learn more about Northwestern Medicine, visit http://news.nm.org/about-northwestern-medicine.html.

PHOTO CAPTION: Dr. David Watt, orthopaedic surgeon, is awarded the Northwestern Medicine Humanitarian Award by Awards Committee member Megan McCann.