Praise Matemavi

Praise Matemavi is the first Zimbabwean Multivisceral transplant surgeon and hepatopancreatobiliary surgeon. Her training is in transplantation of the liver, pancreas, small bowel and kidneys as well as hepatopancreatobiliary surgery. She was born in Seke, Zimbabwe on June 24, 1981. Her family migrated to Michigan, U.S.A when she was 14 years old. She became a teenage mother at the age of nineteen and is a survivor of domestic violence. Currently there are only ten practicing black female transplant surgeons in the U.S.
==Education and career==
Matemavi obtained her Associate Degree in Nursing at Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor, Michigan. She worked for 3 years as a registered nurse in the cardiovascular unit at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana. During that time she received her Bachelors in Applied Science from Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan. In 2010 she received her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. She then went on to do an osteopathic surgery internship at Sinai Grace Hospital - Detroit Medical Center and completed a general surgery residency at New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital - Weill Cornell Medical College in 2017 where she won several awards including intern of the year and resident of the year. In 2019 she completed her abdominal transplant surgery and hepatopancreatobiliary fellowship at The University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. 
Matemavi is an assistant professor of surgery in the division of transplant and hepatobilary surgery at The University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. She is the 2021 recipient of the ASTS-Natera Socioeconomic and Racial Disparity Grant for the work she will be doing to increase living kidney donation and transplants in black patients in Mississippi.
Matemavi is one of only ten Black female transplant surgeons in the United States. She was honored with the Young Alumni Award from Michigan State University in 2021. 
==Humanitarian Work==
Matemavi is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Rose Gift Foundation, a non profit organization that works to serve, empower and elevate the rural girl child in Zimbabwe. The organization focuses on eradicating poverty through the education of girls, one girl at a time; tackling period poverty by supplying sanitary pads and soap to girls who otherwise have no access, combating child marriages and working with imprisoned women and their daughters.
She is passionate about serving those who otherwise have no access to care. Most recently she was part of Team 9 with Kenya Relief performing general surgery in rural Kenya.
==Book==
Dr. Matemavi is the author of "Passion and Purpose: Black Female Surgeons," a book with stories of 74 black female surgeons from around the globe including her story. The book won the 2020 Silver Prize Multicultural Non-Fiction Moonbeam Award. 100% of the book proceeds go towards helping poor African young women and currently sponsoring housing for a young lady from rural Malawi who is studying in India.
==Personal life==
Matemavi has overcome various personal challenges, including an unplanned pregnancy at 18 and an abusive marriage, which she left to pursue her professional aspirations. She is a single mother of two children.