AFRICANA Excellence
Alexandra Rice is a 2021 Doctorate of Medicine candidate at the Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine. She grew up in Columbia, SC and graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2016, double majoring in Science Pre-Professional Studies and Africana Studies.
During her time at Notre Dame, Alex was a member of both the Chorale Choir and Voices of Faith Gospel Choir and served as both President and VP of the Africana Studies Club. Alex won the 2015 Africana Studies Community Spirit and Service Award and was a 2016 inductee into the Societas Africana honor society. She won the 2016 Wright, Flint-Hamilton, & Mason Award for her Africana Studies Senior Thesis under the advisement of Dr. Stuart Greene, entitled “‘It Wouldn't Be the First Time’: Womanism & African-American Women's Activism.” Her thesis was chosen for publication in the 2017 edition of the University of Notre Dame Journal of Undergraduate Research.
Following graduation, Alex completed a year of service at a Mobile Medical Care, Inc., a Federally Qualified Health Center in Montgomery County, MD, through the Westmoreland Volunteer Corps. She matriculated to medical school and has served as Vice President of the MUSC chapter of the Student National Medical Association, Referrals Coordinator for the student-run MUSC CARES Clinic, MUSC Student Government Association Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion, and as
Alex recently matched for Family Medicine residency at the Duke University Department of Family Medicine and Community Health in Durham, NC. She looks forward to caring for underserved patients and addressing health disparities through a career in Family Medicine.a mentor to college and high school students through the SM^3: Student Mentors for Minorities in Medicine program. Alex is a MUSC Presidential Scholar, a South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (AHEC) Scholar, and an AAFP Foundation Emerging Leaders Institute Scholar. She has a personal and academic interest in addressing the historical and ongoing mistreatment of Black patients and other patients of color and led an interprofessional Race & Medicine Medical Humanities discussion group during her time at MUSC.
Bright Gyamfi, a 2016 alumnus from Notre Dame, was the featured topic of a Stanford Business School talk (The Bright Way to Foster Belonging) regarding how to create more inclusivity by Jean-Pierre Vertil, who is currently working on his MBA ’22.
Bright is a PhD candidate in the Department of History in Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. His dissertation examines Ghanaian intellectuals who transformed and radicalized the study of Africa in academic and intellectual centers around the Atlantic.
Recent Honor(s)
Honorable Mention Distinction for the 2020-21 McBride Student Award, Northwestern University, 2021
This award recognizes one graduate student and one postdoctoral trainee who go above and beyond in any or all of the areas of diversity, service, and engagement. Bright was one of two student honorable mention awardees.