Congratulations to two distinguished George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) faculty members who were honored by Xavier University of Louisiana with its 40 Under 40 Awards.
Ashté Collins, MD, FASN, assistant professor of medicine at SMHS, and Chavon Onumah, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at SMHS, both earned bachelor’s degrees at Xavier in 2002.
The university’s 40 Under 40 Awards honor and develop the next generation of advocates, donors, and ambassadors from the school. Collins and Onumah received awards for their commitment to creating positive impact on their communities and on the world.
Collins is board-certified in internal medicine and nephrology and is a member of the American College of Physicians and a fellow of the American Society of Nephrology. He is the medical director of the NxStage Kidney Care dialysis center. His clinical interests include home hemodialysis, chronic kidney disease, acute kidney injury, hypertension, and healthcare disparities, among others.
At SMHS, Collins has revamped the acid-base curriculum, implementing a team-based learning approached that has improved students’ comprehension of the material. He is a participating member of the Internal Medicine Residency Clinical Competency Committee and is principal medical advisor for the GW Health Workforce Institute in collaboration with the American Society of Nephrology.
Onumah is board-certified in internal medicine and certified as an HIV Specialist (AAHIVS). Nationally, she has served on the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine Diversity & Inclusion committee and the Society of General Internal Medicine Health Equity Commission. Her clinical interests include primary care, HIV medicine, women’s health, and health equity.
At SMHS, Onumah is the clerkship director of the Primary Care Clerkship for medical students and a clinical skills and reasoning instructor for pre-clinical medical students. She also serves as a resident educator and co-director of the HIV in Internal Medicine Residency Training Pathway.
In addition, Onumah helped to bring the Building the Next Generation of Academic Physicians Academic Medicine Regional Conference to GW this past fall. Geared toward those traditionally underrepresented in academic medicine, the conference aimed to encourage attendees to consider academic medicine as a career option and offered them resources to further explore that career. Collins served as a speaker for the conference.
40 Under 40 honorees are nominated by others or through self-nomination and chosen by a group of their peers, with support by Xavier faculty and staff members. Over 200 young alumni were nominated for the distinction. To be chosen for the award, alumni must have shown significant accomplishments in their chosen field and be 40 years old or younger.
