Dr. Wakeam graduated from medical school at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, graduating magna cum laude and was elected to the National Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He then returned to his hometown of Toronto for general surgical and thoracic surgical training. While a general surgery resident, he pursued a master's degree in public health (MPH) from Harvard and a surgical outcomes research fellowship at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in the Center for Surgery and Public Health. During his general surgery residency he was awarded the Resident Mentor Award, given to the best resident mentor and role model in the graduating resident class. Following his general thoracic training, he undertook additional sub-specialty training with a further fellowship in lung transplantation in the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at Toronto General Hospital (the largest lung transplant program in the world).
Dr. Wakeam joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 2019 and currently serves as assistant professor in the Section of Thoracic Surgery. His clinical expertise is in general thoracic surgery, treating benign and malignant conditions of the lung, esophagus, thymus and chest wall using minimally invasive approaches, as well as lung transplantation as part of the University of Michigan Lung Transplant Program.