Patricia Oby Ekwueme

Hello! I am a Nigerian-American who was born and raised in the Midwest. I went to public high school and attended the University of Notre Dame as a Psychology/Pre-Professional Studies major. I enjoyed studying psychology, especially learning about how the mind-body interaction works and coping mechanisms that people have. I spent most of my free time as a part of various extracurricular activities, including gospel choir, a West African dance group, and Building Bridges, a peer/faculty mentorship program for minority students. After I graduated, I went straight through to medical school at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. In medical school I chose to pursue a dual MD/MPH degree to learn more about health disparities and how the healthcare system can support community organizations to improve overall health. As part of my MPH, I participated in research involving minority adolescents’ mental health and exposure to online racism and my thesis specifically focused on the role activism serves as a coping mechanism for many of them. Additionally, I led underrepresented minority initiatives to not only serve as mentorship opportunities for high school and college students, but also to create a collaborative experience for current students. I hope to continue to work with minority youth during residency, with the ultimate goal to pursue a Child & Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship. For fun, I like to listen to all types of music, read books ranging from autobiographies to fantasy, spend time with family and friends, and binge watch literally anything Netflix recommends. I am so excited to become a part of the Yale community!