Research Staff Spotlight: Chelsea Okoro
Chelsea Okoro has always sought to advance health equity and work within marginalized communities. “In college, I volunteered with underserved populations dealing with health disparities around Los Angeles,” Chelsea explains.
She was initially inspired to pursue this work by her family. “My parents are Nigerian immigrants, and I have many family members still abroad, so growing up I witnessed preventable diseases spreading among my relatives back home due to a lack of adequate resources and infrastructure,” she says. “When one of my aunts passed away from breast cancer at a really young age, that set me on this path of understanding how social factors play into health outcomes.”
Chelsea began a journey to become a physician working to eliminate health disparities. “My dream is to one day have a low-cost or free clinic where patients can receive all necessary mental, physical, and social health care in one place,” she says.
She is now applying to medical school while working in her current role at CHLA as a Program Specialist in Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine. “I manage recruiting and consenting patients for several clinical research studies,” Chelsea says. “Our main study right now focuses on pediatric integrative medicine – we are offering services like acupuncture and massage to investigate how these methods can help children experiencing chronic pain."
Chelsea enjoys working with a pediatric population and hopes to focus either on pediatrics or women’s health when she becomes a physician. “The diverse pediatric population that we work with at CHLA is a large part of why I wanted to come here,” she explains. “Interacting with patients with different backgrounds and cultural values has been extremely insightful.” She also appreciates the interdisciplinary collaboration and passion among team members at CHLA.
Beyond her work, Chelsea enjoys thrift shopping, crafting, reading, and attending concerts.
