Chika Oriuwa, a resident psychiatrist at the University of Toronto, has been named one of Canada’s 50 most influential people.
Oriuwa, whose parents emigrated from Nigeria to Canada, is placed at No. 37 on the 2022 Maclean’s Power List, a ranking of the most influential people in Canada.
“Our ranking hews toward good-faith actors pursuing positive change, even if their approaches or their notions of positive are not universally shared,” the power list said about its ranking.
In 2016, when Ms. Oriuwa arrived at the University of Toronto as an incoming medical student, she was the only Black student in a cohort of 259.
Being the only Black student in the cohort became a catalyst and propellant for a new phase, which saw her advocating for processes that would increase diversity in medicine and becoming the face of the new Black student application programme the following year.
In 2020, when Ms. Oriuwa graduated, she was the sole valedictorian of her class, making her the only Black woman to receive the honour in the school’s 179-year history.
According to Maclean, Ms. Oriuwa said she chose psychiatry because it has “some of the most marginalized patient demographics in medicine.”
“When I did my clinical rotations, I knew I needed to do something where mental health was the centre,” she was quoted as saying.
Oriuwa is not only a resident physician at the University of Toronto, but she’s also a very well-accomplished spoken word artist. Her spoken word poem, Woman, Black, which she released in 2017, garnered over twelve thousand views on YouTube.
Oriuwa is also passionate about inspiring young girls, and she is quoted as expressing how fulfilling it is to her that she can impact the lives of young girls.
Before her inclusion in the Maclean’s power list, Oriuwa was selected by toymaker Mattel to be part of its Barbie Role Models Program as she was one of those who worked tirelessly during the Covid-19 pandemic. She has a Barbie doll created in her likeness.
In an interview she granted after the selection, she expressed her happiness at being selected stating, “It was such a full-circle moment for me, as a young girl who played with Barbies and always really wanted to see myself reflected. Not only as a child who wanted to be a physician but as a young Black girl.”
ALSO READ: This Nigerian Is The First Black Woman To Become A Practising Pediatric Surgeon In Canada