Maureen Okam Achebe, the daughter of late renowned novelist, Chinua Achebe, has been awarded the Brigham and Women’s Hospital 2024 Faculty Development and Diversity Award. The award recognizes her exceptional contributions across clinical care, research, education, and community service.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a premier academic medical centre and Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospital, acknowledged Okam Achebe’s achievements in a letter dated July 2. The announcement was shared by her sibling, Chidi Achebe, chairman of the African Integrated Development Enterprise Public Benefit Corporation (AIDE PBC).
“The 2024 Faculty Awards designation acknowledges the exceptional achievements of BWH faculty in one or more of the four pillars of academic life: clinical care, research, education, and community service,” the letter stated.
Dr. Achebe’s impressive educational background includes a medical degree from the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, haematology and medical oncology training at Yale School of Medicine, and a master’s in public health from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
She currently serves as an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. She holds multiple leadership roles at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, including director of the Outpatient Infusion Center, clinical director of the Non-Malignant Hematology Clinic, and sickle cell program.
In addition to her clinical and academic roles, Dr. Achebe co-chairs the data subcommittee of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) consortium on newborn screening for sickle cell disease (SCD) in Africa. She also serves as a commissioner on the Lancet Non-Communicable Disease and Injuries (NCDI) Nigeria Poverty Commission, where she provides expertise on sickle cell disease.
Her work focuses on identifying and prioritizing policies and interventions to reduce the burden of SCD in Nigeria. Dr. Achebe is actively involved in clinical trials and translational research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and has been an investigator in the development of two recently approved US FDA drugs for SCD. Brigham and Women’s Hospital will honour Dr. Achebe’s accomplishments at a ceremony on October 28.
