May 22, 2020

Agnes Ezekwesili

Agnes Ezekwesili

Agnes Ezekwesili, a Morehead-Cain Scholar and 2020 graduate from the Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) program in nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has received the George Moses Horton Award for Multicultural Leadership.

This award is presented annually by the UNC Chancellor’s Awards Committee and the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History to a senior who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, initiative and creativity in multicultural education programs. It honors a nineteenth-century poet and friend of students and faculty on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. He used funds generated through his popular verse to buy time away from the Chatham County farm where he was enslaved.

Ezekwesili has demonstrated leadership throughout her time at UNC, beginning her freshman year when she co-founded Mental Health Ambassadors – a campus organization focused on increasing student knowledge about topics related to mental wellness. The organization went on to win the Robert E. Bryan Fellowship for social innovation through the Carolina Center for Public Service.

“One of my greatest extracurricular commitments was to serve as a leader in with Every Nation Campus, a globally-focused campus ministry,” said Ezekwesili. “I served as Vice-President, a connect group leader and on the worship team.”

Agnes Ezekwesili recently graduated with the UNC-Chapel Hill Class of 2020.

Agnes Ezekwesili recently graduated with the UNC-Chapel Hill Class of 2020.

She has also served as a lead student volunteer with the Communiversity Youth Empowerment Program – an after-school tutoring program housed in the Sonja Haynes Stone Center. She has been a member of the Undergraduate Honor Court during each of her four years at Carolina, and she most recently represented BSPH students during nutrition faculty meetings and on the Department of Nutrition’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.

After graduation, Ezekwesili will attend the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, with aspirations to become a surgeon and work internationally to increase access to quality surgical care in southern and western Africa.

“Growing up overseas, I came into close contact with a variety of different health systems and practices,” she explained. “In order to produce better health outcomes, an understanding of these systems is needed to provide a foundation for further innovation on the individual and population levels. The knowledge that there is more we can do, whether through new nutrition recommendations or the adaptation of surgical techniques for lesser-resourced areas, motivates me to keep learning and applying knowledge. My ultimate goal is to be able to use my education and giftings to help heal the bodies of sick individuals and restore hope to families and communities.”


Contact the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@unc.edu.

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