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My name is Ebele Okpokwasili-Johnson. I was born in New York and raised along the Jersey Shore. I went to Columbia University as an undergraduate. During my last year in college I directed and co-produced a full length dramatic play centering on youth coming of age and interfacing with suicide and the development of identity. I continued to volunteer and translate Spanish in the pediatrics ER on the upper west side. I also interned at the New York City Department of health doing field work for the West Nile Virus Project and working on a pest control presentation for the New York City Boroughs. Prior to medical school I traveled to Spain to learn more about the culture and take additional elective classes in Spanish. I went to medical school at the University of Illinois, where I simultaneously completed my masters in public health. My masters work focused on investigating the risk of suicide and depression in youth who had been exposed to violence, weapons, and victimization while also shedding light on ways to foster resiliency in youth. The culmination of this work was presented at the 2005 American Public Health Association conference.
I am currently in my PGY-4 year as a first year Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow, having fast tracked from the MGH/Mclean Adult Residency program. During my adult psychiatry residency I had the opportunity to travel to Puerto Rico to embark on a month-long clinical psychiatry experience primarily using the Spanish language. In the spring of my PGY-3 year I auditioned and was accepted into the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the official chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I spent two weeks of my initial fellowship month in July studying and performing in the Wagner and Brahms’ pieces in Tanglewood. Currently, I am one of the four 1st year fellows starting on the pediatric psychiatry consult service. We see patients with a variety of medical, orthopedic, pain and oncologic issues. In addition to my new child and adolescent outpatients, I continue to see a few adult patients in the outpatient clinic.
I continue to sit on the diversity committee at MGH, which I was in as a resident and now as a fellow. In addition, I had the opportunity to continue writing as an adult resident, as seen in a recently published book review for the AACAP journal published this June and as a contributing author to the MGH/Mclean Psychiatry Residency Handbook. I treasured my years in the MGH/Mclean Adult Psychiatry residency for all that I learned and the mentors and colleagues that I learned from and continue to work with. Currently my interests continue to be in child and adolescent psychiatry and international psychiatry. |
