2020 Outstanding Alumnus Award Winner
Dr. Donald S. LaFont is a resident of Jackson, Tennessee, and specializes in pediatrics. After graduating from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Dr. LaFont interned at St. Joseph Hospital in Memphis for one year. He then joined the United States Public Health Service and was stationed at Fort Yates Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation from 1965 to 1967.
After being discharged as a lieutenant commander, Dr. LaFont completed his pediatric residency at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital from 1967 to 1969 and a fellowship in pediatric endocrinology and metabolism from 1969 to 1970.
Dr. LaFont moved to Jackson in 1970 to join Dr. Jesse Kippy Miller and Dr. Bobby Higgs to start a private practice, before merging with the Jackson Clinic in 1982. He was also a professor at the UT Family Practice Clinic, served twice as chairman of Jackson-Madison County Hospital, and was a member of the By-Laws and Credentials Committee. He has been involved in other organizations including the March of Dimes, American Heart Association, and West Tennessee Speech and Hearing Center, where he served as board chairman, as well as the Visitation Haiti Hospital of Parish Twinning Program of America. He retired in 2001 after 31 years of practice.
His accolades include receiving the Dr. Donna Jean Walker Award for Excellence in Maternal/Fetal Medicine from the March of Dimes and the West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation Award for Medicine (2014). He is also a 50-year member of the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal organization.
Dr. LaFont has also completed more than 25 years of medical mission work in Haiti with at least 75 missions of two to three weeks, including a three-week trip setting up clinics on street corners in Port-au-Prince after the 2010 earthquake.
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