Dr. McDonald & Dr. Wardlaw: The Twin Sister Docs Transforming Healthcare Through Equity and Education
Transforming healthcare equity in Philadelphia—one community program, one student mentor, and one patient encounter at a time.
Dr. Delana Wardlaw and Dr. Elana McDonald are board-certified physicians who have built their careers around meeting people where they are. Through their individual practices, The Twin Sister Docs Foundation, and extensive community programming, these sisters address healthcare disparities while mentoring the next generation of diverse medical professionals—all while raising teenagers and young adults.
Their path to medicine began with devastating loss. Their maternal grandmother died of breast cancer at 53—a disease with high survival rates when caught early, but one that disproportionately affects African American women. “We were inspired by our maternal grandmother passing away at the age of 53 of breast cancer,” they explain. What started as a personal tragedy became the foundation for a lifetime dedicated to eliminating healthcare disparities.
Dr. Delana Wardlaw and Dr. Elana McDonald are 2025 Philadelphia Family Women of Influence Award Winners
Philadelphia Family’s Women of Influence Awards celebrate exceptional women making significant impacts in our community. Dr. Delana Wardlaw and Dr. Elana McDonald were nominated by 2024 Women of Influence Award Winner and owner of Achieving Good Communications, Stefanie Arck-Baynes, and selected based on their achievements and dedication to creating positive change in their community. Each Women of Influence Award Winner has committed to support Family Focus Media’s core values. Together, we are committed to foster a sense of belonging and empowerment for all for all families. All backgrounds, races, genders, and sexual orientations are welcome and safe with us.
Beyond the awards, our Women of Influence Luncheons and Speed Networking Night attendees come together as our Women of Influence Network, a community fostering connections, collaboration, and mutual support.
Breaking Ground as First-Generation Physicians
As African American female physicians, the Twin Sister Docs represent just 2% of the physician population in the United States. Dr. Wardlaw specializes in family medicine while Dr. McDonald practices pediatrics, and together they’ve created The Twin Sister Docs Foundation to provide equity in healthcare and advance the number of women doctors, especially doctors of color.
Being first-generation physicians meant navigating uncharted territory without a family roadmap. “The biggest challenge as first generation physicians is just simply not knowing what the path entailed,” Dr. McDonald reflects. “It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, I want to be a doctor.’ But then you have to understand what it takes—not only the path but financing that path and also just finding people who understand your path.”
Growing up in North Philadelphia, they had limited exposure to physicians who looked like them. “There was one African American physician, Dr. Hawkins, who took care of the entire community,” Dr. Wardlaw recalls. “We did not see any other African American physicians for many, many years—probably until we did our internship in college.”
This lack of representation isn’t just about statistics—it’s a matter of life and death. Recent studies show that when African Americans have an African American physician in their community, they have a longer life expectancy. Representation in healthcare quite literally saves lives.
The Foundation’s Impact: Meeting People Where They Are
Through The Twin Sister Docs Foundation, the sisters have developed comprehensive programming that reaches thousands of community members annually. Their philosophy centers on what they call the three T’s: trust, translate, transform. “We’re trusted messengers. We provide culturally sensitive accurate medical information and that translates into individuals becoming active in their own care,” Dr. McDonald explains.
Their most successful programs have been their COVID vaccination clinics and their ongoing partnership with Philadelphia schools. During the pandemic, they hosted 25 vaccination clinics with school partners, vaccinating over 600 students, family members, and staff. The key to their success was meeting families in places they already trusted—their children’s schools.
“We were meeting people where they were, giving people opportunities to ask questions in a place they were already comfortable with,” Dr. McDonald explains. “They trust the school, they drop their children at school off all the time, but then we as physicians were there and answered all of their questions.”
Their partnership with schools extends far beyond vaccinations. At their monthly visits to local schools, they reach up to 200 students at a time across grades 4-8, covering everything from CPR and AED training to social media etiquette, nutrition, and mental health awareness. They call one program “Be Bold, Be Healthy, Be You.”
The impact is both immediate and personal. A college senior who shadowed Dr. Wardlaw wrote: “I really enjoyed the experience and how you interacted with the patients which gives me even more perspective on my career choice.” A high school student reflected: “This experience has strengthened my enthusiasm for the medical field.”
Representation in Action
For many of the students they mentor, the Twin Sister Docs are the first African American physicians they’ve met up close. “For many of them, we are the first African American doctors that they have had a close encounter with,” Dr. Wardlaw notes. “That gives them the ability to ask questions and see exactly what could lie ahead of them.”
Dr. McDonald adds: “You start to realize some of the kids that you thought you weren’t breaking through to, you’re making a connection. They’re still seeing physicians who look like them. We’re implanting all of these seeds each time we go in.”
The sisters also take their message to large community events like the Odunde Day Festival, the largest African American street festival in the United States, where they set up resource tables to provide health screenings and education to many of the 500,000 attendees. Returning to the community they grew up in for the annual Strawberry Mansion Day is always a highlight as they serve family, friends, and neighbors.
Understanding Community Needs
Practicing in Philadelphia has taught them that effective healthcare means addressing what they call “social determinants of health”—the non-medical factors that impact patients’ ability to access care. “You have to know the community that you’re servicing,” Dr. McDonald emphasizes. “When you understand the community that you’re servicing, it allows you to provide better medical care.”
This includes recognizing transportation barriers, insurance challenges, medication costs, and even neighborhood safety. “Some of my families will tell me—because they feel comfortable, ‘not in my neighborhood, it’s just not safe,'” Dr. McDonald explains about exercise recommendations. “You have to provide the environment where they feel comfortable to tell you that.”
Dr. Wardlaw, who treats multiple generations within families, adds: “I can treat five generations from one family. Having that relationship where they feel comfortable sharing that information, those challenges they may be facing, and being able to provide them with some resources so that we can overcome those challenges.”
Balancing Practice and Mission
Managing full-time medical practices while running extensive community programming requires careful balance. “It’s busy,” Dr. Wardlaw acknowledges. “We work regular nine-to-five jobs, and when we’re in the office, we dedicate our time to the office. But we carve out extra time on weekends, sometimes evenings, where we go to provide resources to the community.”
The sisters, both mothers to teenagers and young adults (Dr. Wardlaw has 17-year-old twins; Dr. McDonald has sons aged 18 and 21), often include their children in community events. “Our children participate in events too. They’re there to help with set up and breakdown, distribution of resource information, assist with technology and, of course, interact with the kids.”
When asked how they manage such demanding schedules, Dr. McDonald’s answer is simple: “People always ask, ‘How do you do it?’ We go back to the why. And when you go back to the why, you figure out how to do it.”
Looking Forward
Their biggest goal for the foundation is to expand programming and reach even more communities, while continuing to inspire young people to pursue medical careers.. “We’re not doing this forever,” Dr. McDonald says. “We always say ‘you got next’—our goal is to allow the foundation to continue our mission as healthcare advocates.”
The sisters also host a podcast and maintain an active social media presence to combat medical misinformation and provide trusted health information. “We are basically discussing topics that disproportionately affect our communities, debunking myths, trying to balance the massive misinformation that’s coming from all the social media people who think they’re experts,” Dr. Wardlaw explains.
What keeps them motivated during tough times is seeing the direct impact of their work. For Dr. McDonald, it’s “watching my patients grow and thrive—I’m on my second generation of patients who were my patients when they were 10, 11. Now they are bringing their babies back to me.”
For Dr. Wardlaw, the motivation comes from knowing she’s “providing a service that is so greatly needed in our communities, particularly marginalized communities, that will allow individuals to live a healthier, longer life.”
The Twin Sister Docs prove that representation in medicine isn’t just about numbers—it’s about creating pathways for others to follow and ensuring quality healthcare becomes accessible to all communities, no matter the zip code. Through their foundation, mentorship, and daily practice, they’re not just treating patients – they’re building a healthier, more equitable future for Philadelphia and beyond.
