Omasiri Okogbule-Wonodi, MD
Resident
University of Maryland, BS
State University of New York Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine, MD
I am a first-generation Nigerian who was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and moved to the U.S. with my parents when I was a baby. I was raised in the beautiful suburbs of Columbia, Maryland, where I completed grade school and eventually attended the University of Maryland, College Park. I majored in neurobiology and physiology, did a lot of volunteering in the community, was in a pre-health fraternity, briefly played on the rugby team, took dance classes, and was a general body/ e-board member of several clubs and organizations.
After college, I decided I wanted to have a meaningful life experience before committing to medical school, so I decided to join the Nigerian National Youth Service Corp (NYSC). NYSC is a year of national service in Nigeria after graduating from college. I served as a community health worker at a public health NGO and worked on the Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Team, which is charged with eliminating maternal-infant transmission of HIV during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. This experience allowed me to learn about my culture and opened my eyes to the importance of primary health care and serving the underserved and most vulnerable members of society. It also piqued my interest in global health.
I attended medical school at SUNY Downstate in East Flatbush, Brooklyn NY. I had always had a passion for pediatrics, but after completing clinical rotations I realized that I liked bits and pieces of different fields. I am a big people person who loves building bonds in the community and felt that I wanted to practice medicine in a way that allowed me to have longitudinal relationships to my patients and allowed me to care for the whole patient and not just an illness. My experiences during medical school showed me that the all-encompassing physician is a family medicine physician because they are the “gatekeepers” of health care who possess a unique interphase with the social determinants of health. I aspire to be a physician who builds long-lasting ties and cares about the holistic health of patients, family members, and their communities.
I am so grateful to be given the opportunity to learn full spectrum medicine at the amazing LGH which is also so close to home in Maryland! My passions in family medicine include fm-ob, women’s health/ reproductive health, pediatrics, global health, and procedures.
When I am not in the hospital, I love exploring restaurants and the social scene, listening and dancing to music, dabbling in Netflix and and HBO, exploring cities, and game nights. I also want to get more into fitness and the outdoors, so I am very excited to explore Lancaster!