May 15, 2026 — As a 5-year-old, Lattisha Bilbrew, M.D., recalled seeing a healthcare provider hand pills to her grandmother without introducing themselves or explaining what medication she was being prescribed, nor its purpose.

“That experience really created the framework of what type of physician I wanted to be, and it was also seeing the antithesis of what I wanted to represent in healthcare and medicine,” Bilbrew said.

She has taken this framework to heart, building upon it to carve out a career in orthopaedic surgery that inspires patients, colleagues, trainees and students.

After attending the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta and completing her orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Bilbrew joined the University of Florida College of Medicine for a hand and upper extremity fellowship, one of medicine’s most competitive subspecialties. Since then, her Atlanta-based career has enabled her to treat patients and serve as a role model for the next generation of physicians.

Bilbrew was recently honored as a 2026 member of the UF 40 Gators Under 40 class, which recognizes alumni who have not only achieved remarkable professional success but have also demonstrated an unwavering commitment to service and a deep connection to UF.

About two-thirds of surgeons complete fellowships, which range from one to three years and allow clinicians to further specialize their craft.

“Whereas in residency you’re drinking from a firehose, in your fellowship you actually feel like you have the capacity to drink from the firehose,” Bilbrew said.

When applying to various programs, Bilbrew felt an instant connection at UF.

“I immediately knew I was going to rank UF number one, and I told them that,” she said. “It was meeting Dr. Paul Dell — the hand surgeon who pretty much started the hand program at UF — and the family feeling. It was the feeling of, ‘We’re going to invest in you.’”

Bilbrew still looks back fondly on her fellowship year as one of the best experiences of her training, from learning the art and science behind her specialty and finding a mentor in Dell, M.D. ’71, to getting involved in community service.

Dell, an emeritus professor who spent more than three decades treating patients and training surgeons at UF, founded Hands to Love, a camp for children with congenital hand issues that Bilbrew became involved with during her fellowship. She currently serves as treasurer on the nonprofit’s board of directors. This April, she also had the opportunity to visit the camp with her son, Washington, for the first time, and introduce him to young patients she had performed surgeries on.

In addition to her volunteer work with Hands to Love, Bilbrew is a partner at Resurgens Orthopaedics, a member of the National Physician Leadership Board for United Musculoskeletal Partners, secretary of the board of specialties and a member on the board of directors for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

She also authored a book, “Yes, I Am the Surgeon,” which she hopes will inspire a paradigm shift.

“It gives you the tools you need to persevere and get through difficult moments,” she said. “It’s about standing out as the only person when you don’t feel like you have help and showing you how you can find that help within yourself.”

With the rise of social media and medical influencers, Bilbrew also saw a need to counteract information people may come across that is not rooted in scientific research. She recently founded Beyond the Clinic to help clinicians understand how to use social media content to impact patients on a wider scale and use their platforms to share accurate health information. She aims to get her tools approved for continuing medical education credits so they can be used for formal clinician training.

“I’m empowered to be part of the strategy of medicine that goes beyond my clinic,” she said.

Finally, Bilbrew said it’s important for clinicians to have hobbies and an identity outside of their profession. She has recently become interested in amateur bodybuilding and will be competing in her first competition in Atlanta this month.

“After medical school, you can literally do anything,” she said. “We’re so much more than our titles. Most patients can’t relate to being a doctor, but you can relate to going to the gym, right? You can relate to speaking up for someone. You can relate to social media. So just be something beyond who you think you are with those two letters at the end of your name.”