Dr. Wakeam attended medical school at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and completed his postgraduate training in General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto. 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. Following his general thoracic fellowship training, he undertook additional sub-specialty training in lung transplantation as a fellow in the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at Toronto General Hospital.
After training, Dr. Wakeam joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 2019 as assistant professor in the Section of Thoracic Surgery. While at the University of Michigan, he maintained a busy general thoracic practice with a focus in foregut surgery as part of the University of Michigan Foregut Program, one of the largest in the United States. In his second year of practice, he was appointed the surgical director of the Michigan lung transplant program. He also founded and co-led the multidisciplinary Michigan Complex Airway Intervention Program (M-AIR).
At UHN, he practices minimally invasive general thoracic surgery with a focus on esophageal, airway and complex general thoracic surgery. He is also a member in the Toronto lung transplant program.