By Caleb White
In this month’s Chair’s Spotlight, we feature Onica Washington-Moore, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Renal Medicine. In January, we spoke with Dr. Washington-Moore to discuss her biochemistry research background, what motivated her to pursue a career as a nephrologist, and her experience in medicine as a Black physician.
Dr. Washington-Moore grew up in St. Stephen, South Carolina, a small town north of Charleston. She recalls that her love of medicine first began with her love of science. Her father, a high school science teacher, would regularly bring her to the laboratory on his days off, where they would conduct experiments together. She cultivated her love of science throughout high school and into college, where she majored in chemistry and biochemistry at the College of Charleston. After graduation, she was accepted into the MD program at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Two years into her medical degree studies, Dr. Washington-Moore began to miss scientific inquiry and research. “I love thinking for myself and planning experiments, asking questions, and trying to find the answers. At medical school, I was focused on taking everything in,” she said. She took a leave of absence from medical school and pivoted to pursuing a PhD in biochemistry at Duke University School of Medicine, intending to complete both programs and eventually become a physician-scientist. As a graduate assistant, her work included research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham, North Carolina, where she studied post-transcriptional RNA regulation in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans. After defending her PhD dissertation in 2016, she returned to medical school and earned her MD in 2018 before coming to UMass Chan for her Internal Medicine residency.
Dr. Washington-Moore was interested in various specialties after her residency, including geriatrics and palliative care, before deciding to enter a nephrology fellowship at Mass General Brigham. It was there that she experienced another career-related epiphany. “I kept hearing from patients, ‘Oh, you're so good at talking with us. This is what you were born to do.’ So I decided to shift my focus away from research for now,” she said. “I still love research, but I wanted to be closer to my patients. It's about the immediacy of helping people and seeing them get better.”
Dr. Washington-Moore’s approach to patient care elicits positive feedback. She says she prefers to be her normal self— and she doesn’t always wear her white coat. “It's easier for a patient to see me as a regular person,” she explained. “I like sitting down and talking with my patients. Some of them have really interesting stories, backgrounds, and philosophies of life, but you have to sit down and talk to them. I think we can forget to do that as physicians because we're so busy.”
As a Black doctor, Dr. Washington-Moore has encountered some instances of prejudice, especially in moments without her coat. “There have been times when I walk into a room, and people assume I’m there to dump the trash or pick up a plant or something. And it's one of those things where I can wear my white coat, but I don't because I'm a doctor in whatever I'm wearing,” she said. “You have to be a lot more confident than your peers because you're going to be scrutinized a lot harder on some things. It makes you grow a lot stronger, and you persevere.”
Following her return to UMass Chan in 2024 as a faculty member, Dr. Washington-Moore is not only an attending nephrologist; she is also a Geriatric Medicine fellow. She credits one of her mentors from residency, Anila Medina, MD, for encouraging her to pursue geriatrics due to her talent in engaging with its patient population. Currently, her projects include educating fellows and residents on the intersection between geriatrics and nephrology, such as recognizing chronic kidney disease in geriatric patients, determining candidates for dialysis, and having goals-of-care conversations. “My dream is to eventually develop a geriatrics/nephrology palliative clinic for our patients,” said Dr. Washington-Moore.
We are incredibly grateful for Dr. Washington-Moore’s contributions and passion for patient care in the Department of Medicine!