By Uche Amunike
Dr. Maureen Achebe, daughter of renowned novelist and playwright, late Chinua Achebe, has just bagged a Havard Medical School award known as the Brigham and Women’s Hospital 2024 Faculty Development and Diversity Award.
This was disclosed by the chairman of the African Integrated Development, Enterprise Public Benefit Corporation, Chidi Achebe, who is also a son of the late novelist.
Speaking through his LinkedIn post on July 2, 2024, he stated that the hospital, which is a premier teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, informed Maureen of her award through a letter dated July to 2024, which he also shared.
The post read: ‘2024 Faculty Development and Diversity Awards.
‘To God be the glory always! Ekenedili Chukwunna! Very big deal at Harvard! All glory to God!’
‘Maureen Okam-Achebe, President, AIDE Healthcare International, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Director, Harvard University’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital Outpatient Infusion Centre. Also Clinical Director, Non-Malignant Hematology Clinic. Director, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Sickle Cell Programme and Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Triple-board certified in Medical Oncology, Hematology, and Internal Medicine. Alumnus of the University of Port Harcourt Medical School and the M.T. Chan Harvard School of Public Health.’
‘Sweetie: Very proud of you. Keep on keeping on!’
Dr. Maureen Achebe received her first medical degree from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria; Haematology and Medical Oncology training at Yale School of Medicine, as well as a Master’s in Public Health at Havard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
She is also an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School; Clinical Director of the Non-Malignant Haematology Clinic; Director of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Sickle Cell Program Outpatient Infusion Center; Director of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Sickle Cell Program; even as she is an instructor in medicine at the Harvard Medical School.
This versatile daughter of Chinua Achebe also co-chairs the data sub-committee of the American Society of Hematology Consortium on Newborn Screening for Sickle Cell Disease in Africa.
Maureen Achebe is also a commissioner on the Lancet Non-Communicable Disease and Injuries Nigeria Poverty Commission as the expert on Sickle Cell disease. She also guides the identification and prioritization of policies, interventions and integrated delivery platforms in order to properly address and reduce the burden of sickle cell disease in the country.
Dr. Achebe is also an active conductor of clinical trials and translational research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, even as she is also known to be an investigator in the development of two of the most recently applied US FDA-approved drugs for sickle cell disease.
On October 28, 2024, Chinua Achebe’s daughter, Dr Maureen Achebe will be honored for all her accomplishments, as announced by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Her late father, Chinua Achebe, popularly known as the ‘father of modern African literature’, wrote his best selling and first novel, Things Fall Apart, in 1958. It was the most widely read book in modern African literature, which sold over 8 million copies around the world and became translated into 50 languages, making him the most translated African writer of all times.
In 1990, Achebe was in involved in a car accident which left him paralyzed from the waist down.
During his writing career, Achebe, won many awards, including the Man Booker International price in 2007 as well as the Dorathy and Lillian Gish price in 2010. In 1982, he received an honorary fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as a honorary degree from more than 30 universities around the world. He however, rejected the title of Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR), a national honor, both in 2004 and 2011.
