Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo

About Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo

Born in Nigeria, Lucy was brought by relatives to Oakland, California when she was eleven. The United States promised to provide a better life, but as an undocumented student for over twelve years Lucy had to fight for her own survival. She developed a strong sense of resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Lucy focused on her academics and graduated from high school at fifteen as the class valedictorian. She obtained her undergraduate degree from California State University, East Bay before the age of twenty. After college, she started volunteering at Highland Hospital-a safety-net hospital primarily serving Oakland's uninsured patients and while there, started an innovative pre-health surgical internship program–Operating Room Experiences–which has now matriculated dozens of students into medical and other graduate health professional programs. 

After completing her medical school education from the University of California, Davis, (UC Davis), she moved to Boston for residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/McLean Harvard Psychiatry Program, where she served as the MGH Administrative Chief Resident and Chair of the MGH Resident and Fellow Committee.

She is currently an Assistant Professor at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and serves in a number of leadership and clinical roles at UCSF including as: the Medical Director of the UCSF Alliance Health Project (serving LGBTQ and HIV-affected communities), Associate Program Director in the Psychiatry Residency Training Program, Associate Program Director in the Public Psychiatry Fellowship and as the Director of the UCSF School of Medicine’s Post Baccalaureate Program and Office of Outreach. 

She currently serves as a Co-Editor of the Racism and Mental Health Equity column with the Psychiatric Services Journal, which is a monthly publication of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). She is an elected Board Member of the American Association for Community Psychiatry (AACP) as well as the Black Psychiatrists of America, Inc. (BPA). She has created pipeline programs focused on optimizing the matriculation of historically excluded students into health professional programs, including starting the 501c3 non-profit organization Health Equity Leadership Academy, Inc. 

She is a highly sought after keynote speaker and has received numerous awards and recognition for leadership and dedication to public service from many institutions and organizations including: the Association of American Medical Colleges, National Academy of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, UCSF, American Psychiatric Association, The American College of Psychiatrists, Association for Academic Psychiatry, and many others.

She is dedicated to improving health care through social justice and the primary theme of her work is based on equity-focused organizational initiatives, culturally congruent community engagement, equitable mental health services delivery for marginalized communities, reproductive justice, and healthcare workforce diversity.