Dr. Debraj “Raj” Mukherjee is a neuro-oncosurgeon at the Hopkins Hospital. In an interview with The News-Letter, he discussed his medical career and work with the Peace Education Program in Baltimore, for which he was recently awarded the 2025 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Community Service.
Mukherjee attributed the significance of his time completing medical school at Dartmouth to his burgeoning interest in the broader field of public health.
“While I was at Dartmouth, I was mentored by a former U.S. Surgeon General, which really instilled in me an interest in public health and in thinking about things that are a little atypical for someone who is a surgeon to be interested in, but it was cool to have his influence.“
In 2007, Mukherjee was at the Hopkins School of Public Health as a Sommer Scholar — a scholarship meant for those with the potential to join a global network of leaders in the field. He developed a specific interest in neurosurgery after one of his family members developed a brain tumor and was bolstered by mentors such as Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojasa. This spurred a residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center amongst various other initiatives, including working as a fellow at the University of Pittsburgh.
Around seven years ago, Mukherjee was recruited by Hopkins as a faculty member, where he became involved with the Peace Education Program: a virtual course dedicated to improving participant wellness across domains, including inner strength, self awareness and clarity. He reflected on his involvement during the interview with The News-Letter.
“When it comes to the Peace Education Program, during the height of the pandemic, I think people felt really isolated and alone,” he said. “In surgery at Hopkins, it's a relatively small group of people. And because of that, I thought it would be appropriate and nice... to try to do something to have people feel a bit more connected to each other.”
As a free, online and thus widely accessible program with a proven track record, its success with students and staff at Hopkins encouraged Mukherjee to take it across Baltimore. Using grants, he implemented it in community centers, working with various projects which included bringing the program’s benefits to recently incarcerated women.
A typical session with the Peace Education Program spans 10 weeks, with one hour each week. Within this hour, time is dedicated to short lectures, interviews and audio-visual elements sharing insights into the process and philosophy of finding peace. The remaining time is used to encourage self-reflection: for writing, journaling or, ultimately, to spend time to think and share.
“I think having that hour or 45 minutes, or whatever it is, every week, was a respite [for a lot of people] from all of the craziness that they have to go through in their day-to-day life... I would say for our team at Hopkins, and even for a lot of the community work, it's inadvertently sort of built a trust in unity amongst folks,” he said.
Despite the program’s current success, Mukherjee touched on the challenges he went through at the beginning. He recognized that relatively few surgeons initiate projects similar to the Peace Education Program, where services are provided to disadvantaged groups at no charge. He even recalled the first time he brought up the idea to his department, where it was met with skepticism, and described the importance of carrying humanistic beliefs as a surgeon.
“To be a neurosurgeon requires dedication, focus and precision, but in the moment that you’re doing the surgery, it actually doesn’t require a lot of humanism,” he said. “The bit that is related to humanism is when there is a weight in the move that you make in a critical moment. Even though we don’t think of surgeons as necessarily humanistic, it’s a hidden part of the job. If you’re not a human being first, you are not a good surgeon.”
He then touched on the time constraints of taking up such an initiative as a surgeon, while making sure that the schedule would work for the target audience. Although it was difficult to find a time where he could bring people from different ages to the same place, he was able to succeed with several readjustments.
When asked about the what kept him going despite all the obstacles that came up along the way, Mukherjee mentioned the importance of positive feedback he received in the workshops, especially those that came from participants.
“There were many sweet people that said, ‘I never thought of my life in that way. I had never thought that I had as much value as I do, that I matter as much as I do,’” he said. “It points [people] to [themselves] in how important it is to be centered, focused and get out as much as we can get out of every day, to feel peace within ourselves.”
Mukherjee discussed the importance of having versatile mentors who take their expertise in science farther than research, especially for those who are interested in pursuing medicine.
“It’s easy to figure out what kind of research someone does, but it’s much harder to figure out who is involved in social justice or the humanities,” he explained. “Ideally, if you can find a mentor or advisor you can emulate and actually connect with, that’s the best way to figure out a path for yourself. If you develop a relationship like that, you can engage in meaningful work outside of the norm.”
According to Mukherjee, this is an important step in reflecting and figuring out what one wants to do when striving to find meaning in life, and deciding whether the profession they’re planning to seek is conducive to that. To him, this was helping people enjoy their life, which pushed him to find a universal way to bring people joy, a seemingly impossible task.
“I never figured out a way to bring people universal happiness. There are more than eight billion people; it's a little crazy,” he said. “But I figured, if I could help people have a foundation of health and wellness, then they can pursue their joy and their happiness.”
