News
Resident physician to participate in Arizona Health Policy Scholar Program
Ashley Okuagu, D.O., a first-year resident physician in The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s unique National Family Medicine Residency (NFMR) program, has been selected as a 2024 Arizona Health Policy Scholar.
Dr. Ashley Okuagu
Dr. Okuagu is receiving her graduate medical education and training at one of The Wright Center’s four, NFMR partner sites: El Rio Health, in Tucson, Arizona.
As a member of the scholars program – conducted by the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians – she will participate in a series of trainings and events that equip physicians to be advocates for their patients and profession in both state and federal halls of power. The program’s aim is to cultivate physician leaders who will work to improve health care, realizing that advocacy offers another level of meaning and purpose to their professional role in family medicine.
The five-month program will culminate in May with participants attending the Family Medicine Advocacy Summit, a multi-day conference in Washington, D.C.
Each Arizona medical school and residency program was permitted to choose only one representative to participate in this year’s scholars class.
“We are proud and very excited that Dr. Okuagu has been selected as a member of the Arizona Health Policy Scholars Class of 2024,” said Lawrence LeBeau, D.O., the NFMR program director. “Physician advocacy is essential to providing quality patient care in a challenging health care environment. Participation in this advocacy scholars program will provide Dr. Okuagu with valuable education, experience, and mentorship to develop her skills in physician advocacy.”
She and other participants will receive instruction on many issues, including how to build relationships with legislators and policymakers, becoming familiar with the mechanics of legislative advocacy, and understanding rural health care policy.
Dr. Okuagu is a resident leader in the NFMR program. Founded nearly 11 years ago by The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education and its partners, the family medicine residency has a single curriculum that is tailored to the resources available at each of the training locations in Arizona, Ohio, Washington state, and Washington, D.C.
The program was established to generate highly skilled, compassionate physicians who are inclined to serve in rural or other medically underserved areas throughout the United States. Many of its graduates have a heart for treating patient populations that historically have been marginalized, such as low-income individuals, people who are experiencing homelessness, and justice-involved individuals.
Since the NFMR program’s inception, more than half of its graduates have entered practice in one of the nation’s community health centers. In fact, The Wright Center-led program has succeeded in retaining an average of 36 percent of its graduates at the same health centers in which they trained, meaning those physicians chose to continue working among high-needs patient populations in rural or underserved urban communities.
