Bria Adimora Godley, MD

Bria was born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina by two UNC physician parents. She attended Yale College, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and sang a cappella in The New Blue and Whim ‘n Rhythm. Upon graduation, she was awarded the Cohen Public Service Fellowship, which enabled her to spend the subsequent year traveling the United States and interviewing millennials about their views on race. Her work evolved from a research project into a genre-bending manuscript of personal essays; she signed with Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency in 2017. At the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, she collaborated with the Ackland Art Museum to design ‘Can We Talk About Race?’ a curricular program that uses art to discuss issues of race and representation in medicine. In honor of her late father, she founded the Paul A. Godley Art of Medicine Fellowship, which is awarded annually to two medical students to support their efforts to promote an antiracism at UNC. Her interests within psychiatry include the effects of racism on mental health, as well as the use of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression. Her writing has been published in The Atlantic, The Harvard Medical Student Review, The New Journal at Yale, Current Opinion in HIV & AIDS, The Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development, and American Chordata. In 2021, Bria signed a deal with Algonquin Books to publish her memoir about medical school and mental illness. Bria has a black cat named Omen. Her interests outside of psychiatry include playing tennis, reading memoir and essays, and writing. When she’s not hanging out with her friends, she’s usually sleeping, which is a boring pastime, but a rewarding one.