Division of Biology and Medicine
Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

OBEDI Fellowship

The Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (OBEDI) Fellows Program is an opportunity for a medical student to develop skills in leadership, collaboration, and program development through the creation of initiatives that support the mission of the OBEDI.

The OBEDI LEAD Fellow is a rising third or fourth year medical student who works with the OBEDI and is supported by a year-long stipend. The Fellow works closely with the OBEDI under the guidance of the Assistant Dean for Curriculum on Diversity, Inclusive Teaching, and Learning. 

Existing programs such as the Brown Advocates for Social Change and Equity (BASCE) fellowship and the Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM) tutoring program for first-year, low-income, students of color, and first-generation medical students are coordinated primarily by the OBEDI LEAD Fellow.

Current Fellow

  • Olugbade MD'24

    Idowu Olugbade MD'24

    Idowu 'Idee' (She/her) is a first-generation Nigerian-American medical student. Born in Nigeria, her family migrated to the United States when she was 6 years old, and she grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. After completing her undergraduate studies in Behavioral Neuroscience at Lehigh University, Idee worked as a community health worker in Baltimore, MD. This invaluable experience served as a catalyst, igniting her passion for medicine. In 2020, Idee embarked on her medical education journey at the Warren Alpert Medical School. 

    At the medical school. Idee is a concentrator in the Reproductive Health Scholarly Concentration. She previously served as the co-president of AMS's Student National Medical Association (SNMA) chapter and continues her involvement with SNMA as the regional treasurer. She is also actively engaged within the medical school, having served on the Curriculum Committee for the past 3 years. Idee founded a disability advocacy and justice club at the medical school and co-founded the medical school's running club, the Serotonin Seekers of RI (SSRIs). Additionally, Idee is deeply involved in the Providence community, volunteering with the various organizations, including the Gyn Clinic at Clinica Esperanza, and inspiring local middle school and high school students to pursue careers in medicine. Her clinical  interests lie in pediatrics, where she aims to make positive impact on the lives of young patients and their families. Outside of her academic pursuits, Idee finds joy in photography, playing soccer, solving puzzles, reading fiction books, and spending quality time watching cartoons with her niece and goddaughter whenever possible. 

    She is excited to be the OBEDI LEAD Fellow for 2023-2024 and is looking forward to working with the administration and students.

Previous Fellows

  • Olivia W. Cummings MD'24

    Olivia Cummings MD'24

    2022-2023 OBEDI LEAD Fellow

    Olivia (she/her) was born in the Bronx, NY. She is the youngest daughter of her Black American mother and Jamaican father and is so grateful to have been given the gift of belonging to two vibrant and proud communities. Passionate about having a role in alleviating the many structural inequities she witnessed as a child and teenager, Olivia came to Brown in 2015 as a student in the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), where she studied Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.

    Interested in learning more about how physicians can be forces for change in the population health realm, Olivia matriculated to the Warren Alpert Medical School in 2019 as a member of the Primary Care-Population Medicine combined MD/ScM program. In medical school, she has been involved in the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), White Coats 4 Black Lives, AMS Student Senate, student clinics (gynecology & ophthalmology) at Clínica Esperanza/Hope Clinic, Street Outreach with the House of Hope, and patient navigation with the Transitions Clinic for formerly incarcerated patients. She has also worked at the Brown School of Public Health at the Center for Evidence Synthesis & Health and is passionate about the creation and synthesis of scientific research for evidence-based patient care. During her year as ODMA Fellow, she is also working as an intern in an ocular infectious disease lab at Massachusetts Eye & Ear.

    Olivia loves to explore the food scene in Providence, which is awesome, amazingly diverse, and constantly changing. She also tries to find time for wellness and exercise, catching up with friends, caring for her many plants, and picking up new hobbies. 

    She is excited to be the ODMA Fellow for 2022-2023 and is looking forward to working with the administration and students.

  • Idara Ndon

    Idara Ndon MD'23

    2021-2022 ODMA Diversity Fellow

    Idara is originally from the Bay Area, California and is proud to be one of four children of Nigerian immigrants. 

    She graduated from Brown University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. While at Brown, Idara enjoyed cultivating a sense of mentorship, support, and community in various spaces; Idara served as an academic and social peer advisor. She also connected with high school students in the community and ignited interest and excitement for STEM through preparing students for neuroscience competitions. Outside of these roles, you could find Idara singing with her acapella family, Shades of Brown- a multiracial and multi-ethnic acapella group. 

    Prior to starting medical school, Idara worked at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She enjoyed playing a role in developing the Center of Mendelian Genomics and the Rare Genomes Project in their initial stages. When she wasn’t working or busy applying to medical school, you could find Idara recharging in the arts of music and fashion, dancing, or solo traveling through various countries (mainly eating her way through). 

    Currently, Idara is an MD candidate in the class of 2023 at Alpert Medical School. Here, you can find her advocating for minority communities, practicing trauma-informed care, and working to make medicine as an institution more inclusive. Idara is very excited to join the ODMA team as the Diversity Fellow for the 2021-2022 year and can’t wait to see what the year will bring.

  • Gisel Bello MD'22

    Gisel Bello MD'22

    2020-2021 ODMA Diversity Fellow

    Gisel is a New York City native, raised in the housing projects of Harlem, daughter of Dominican immigrant parents, and a proud first-generation graduate.

    She earned her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Rhode Island in 2013 and returned in 2016 for an informal post-baccalaureate in biochemistry. While at URI she founded "Seeds of Success", a student-run organization committed to helping underrepresented students in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences attain a holistic educational experience during their time at the University.

    She currently is an MD candidate, class of 2022, at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. There, she continues to support underrepresented students through leadership positions in the Student National Medical Association and the Latino Medical Student Association.

    Before attending medical school, Gisel worked as a clinical research assistant, as a medical scribe in the emergency department, and was the interim coordinator for the Coastal and Environmental Fellows Program at URI. Additionally, she traveled abroad on medical missions to the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Honduras to help provide medical services to rural communities. She continues to support underserved communities as a board member of the Women’s Clinic at Clinica Esperanza in Providence. Gisel is devoted to women's reproductive health, health disparities in underserved communities, and global health.

    She is honored to have been selected as the ODMA Fellow for the 2020-2021 year and is looking forward to joining ODMA in supporting our student body here at AMS. 

     

  • Angela Zhang, MD'21

    Angela Zhang, MD'21

    2019-2020 ODMA Diversity Fellow

    Originally from Seattle, WA, Angela graduated from Duke University with a self-designed major, Mass Media & Cross-Cultural Perception, which explored the ways media shape us, with an emphasis on the experience of immigrant families. She lived in Baltimore before AMS, doing research in Parkinson's and becoming involved in Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) activism. At Alpert, her interests have included refugee/immigrant health, the health impacts of climate change, sexual health/reproductive justice, and API advocacy and allyship. In her future career, Angela hopes to continue to advocate with underserved communities and to produce responsible health journalism that normalizes stigmatized topics.

  • Radhika Rajan MD'20

    Radhika Rajan MD'20

    2018-2019 ODMA Diversity Fellow

    Radhika grew up in Queens, NY and Gainesville, FL.  She came to AMS by way of the PLME program at Brown, where she concentrated in Anthropology and worked at the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center and the Brown Center for Students of Color. At Alpert, her interests included reproductive justice, narrative medicine and creating an inclusive curriculum and learning environment. 

    "It's important to realize that diversity and inclusion is every department and office's problem and opportunity to create change," she says. "The work that the ODMA does across the various hospital systems holds a lot more weight if it is done in conjunction or with the explicit support of the greater medical school administration."

  • Ry Garcia-Sampson '12 MPH'15 MD'19

    Ry Garcia-Sampson '12 MPH'15 MD'19

    2017-2018 ODMA Diversity Fellow

    Ry Garcia-Sampson '12 MPH'15 MD'19 created Brown Advocates for Social Change and Equity (BASCE), a yearlong fellowship for medical students, residents and faculty members.

    Growing up in a rural border town in Texas, Garcia-Sampson learned at an early age how disparities in health care can affect individuals in a community. “When I was young, my mother had several organ transplants. I had a lot of exposure to the medical field from that standpoint and saw how discrimination made it difficult for some people to navigate the health care system. In part, it was what inspired me to become a physician.”