Dr. Adora Chinenye Nwankwo became a member of the Department of Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine as an Instructor in June 2021. She was born in the nation’s capital and raised in Montgomery County, Maryland. She attended Cornell University and graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology. After graduating she attended Georgetown University and attained a Masters in Physiology and Biophysics in 2013. She later spent a year helping to manage Capital Pediatrics clinic in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
She went on to receive her medical degree in 2018 from the Howard University College of Medicine where she was awarded the Class of 1983/Dewana Buckner Scholarship. During medical school, she was involved in numerous community outreach programs including volunteering at TASSC Asylum Clinic where she performed free medical screenings and helped refugees that were survivors of politically motivated torture to navigate the health care system. She also engaged in research and contributed to the research project entitled “Elevated Caspase-3 Expression in SIV-infected Infant Primates” which involved the qualifying of apoptosis in neurons of the parietal cortex and hippocampal regions of SIV-positive and SIV-negative brain tissue of rhesus macaques. Dr. Nwankwo completed her internship and residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital / Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis prior to joining the division in 2021.
During residency, she was treasurer of the Washington University Minority Medical Association. Her academic interest includes general inpatient medicine as well as community outreach. Her outside interest include West African textile traditions and music, Zumba with hopes of one day becoming an instructor, travel, and international cuisine.