EX-CAR THIEF AND TEEN DAD IS NOW A JOHNS HOPKINS SURGEON

A Fresno teenager who was stealing cars and about to become a father at 14 turned his life around after a school counselor named Henry Ray told him about a college program. That boy, Dr. James Harris, is now a Johns Hopkins surgeon, serving as chair of surgery at Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center in Columbia, Maryland.

In a profile published August 18, 2026, TODAY reported that Harris grew up in what he called a “crack den.” His father struggled with addiction and moved in and out of his life, and his mother was largely absent.

By 14, Harris had failed two years of high school and was surrounded by gang violence. He carried a padlock, and later a Swiss Army knife, to look tough. “I was a mess,” he told TODAY.

His girlfriend Rosina became pregnant. While she was expecting, Harris was driving a stolen Cadillac to pick her up when police tried to pull him over. He made a U-turn and led officers on a high-speed chase while Rosina watched from outside.

The counselor who pointed him to college

Harris was kicked out of his regular high school and landed at a continuation school. FOX26/KMPH reported that he went from McLane High School to Ted C. Wills Restart. He was working at a fast-food restaurant and had largely stopped thinking about higher education.

Then Ray told him about Fresno State’s Equal Opportunity Program. “No one had ever taken the time to tell me about resources,” Harris said. Others looked at him and saw someone who did not care and was barely passing classes, but Ray believed in him.

Harris enrolled at Fresno State, where years of missed school meant extra math and English before he could start his degree classes. At 17, he was finishing high school and raising his son Tre with Rosina. FOX26 reported he worked three jobs while in college.

He got into UCLA Medical School, his first choice, and went back to the continuation school with a copy of the acceptance letter for Ray. “It was one of the greatest moments of my life,” he said. KSEE/KGPE reported that he finished medical school at UCLA and completed his residency at Johns Hopkins. His Johns Hopkins profile lists the degree from 2007 and the residency from 2014, and names him an associate professor of clinical surgery.

Harris had wanted to be a doctor since second grade, when he watched cardiologists care for his grandmother, who had heart failure.

Marcus, one of Harris’s three children, suffered a severe traumatic brain injury at 17 after falling from a skateboard. It happened while Harris was chief resident. Marcus survived with significant disabilities, including severe vision loss, and still lives with his parents.

“I needed to be humble,” Harris told TODAY. He said the accident changed how he treats patients and made him more aware of the fear and uncertainty families carry into a hospital.

Where he is now

Harris is an associate program director for the hospital’s residency program. Johns Hopkins named him its 2022 Physician of the Year, and the hospital said he had volunteered to cover gastroenterology emergencies after the group providing on-call care said it would stop starting in October 2022.

He and Rosina have been married for 34 years. Tre, 32, is an English professor, and Danielle, 25, is a biologist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory who is considering medical school.

Harris told his story in a memoir, Not Who I Once Was: My Unusual Path to Becoming a Surgeon, listed on his author website. He said the readers he most wants to reach are the teachers, counselors and other adults who may spot a kid’s potential first.

“A lot of us come from homes that are riddled with drugs and abuse and all kinds of horrible things,” he told TODAY. “And we don’t know anything that’s good because we’re raised around hell.”

A TODAY follow-up said Harris had searched for Ray for more than 25 years. On September 16, 2026, he posted on social media asking for help finding him, and the two were connected within hours. Ray was 80 and retired, and Harris was 48.

“I wouldn’t have made it if you didn’t do that for me,” Harris told him by phone. “You were worth a chance because you were young,” Ray replied, according to NBC Washington.

Ray remembered Harris right away. Harris offered to send him a gift, but Ray asked for a copy of the memoir instead, with Harris’s phone number inside. “Now send me that book,” he said.