Chidi Chike Achebe (born 1967) is a Nigerian-American physician executive who currently serves as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of African Integrated Development Enterprise (AIDE). He has also served as the president and CEO of Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center, medical director of Whittier Street Health Center and as assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Achebe also serves as medical consultant for Clean Water for Kids, an NGO that brings fresh water to underserved communities in Liberia, and advisor for Tesfa Health in Bahirdar, Ethiopia.
Born in Enugu in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe is the third child of Chinua Achebe and Professor Christie Chinwe Okoli-Achebe. His father is regarded as the “father of modern African literature” and best known for the trilogy of classic African novels Things Fall Apart (1958); “No Longer at Ease” (1960); and “Arrow of God” (1964). In 1972, shortly after the end of the Nigerian civil war, the family moved to the U.S. for about five years while his father held professorships at American universities. They resided again in Nigeria during the 1980s, before returning to the U.S. His younger sister Nwando Achebe is a historian and professor at Michigan State University.
Achebe completed undergraduate studies in natural sciences, history and philosophy at Bard College; received an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, his MD at Dartmouth Medical School and an MBA degree at Yale University’s School of Management.[2][3] He also completed his residency in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Texas, Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. After several years of work at various Boston health centers, Achebe says he now sees “the struggle against inequalities in health and health care for all vulnerable, under served Americans, as the next stage of the Civil Rights movement”.
Chidi Achebe is married to Maureen Okam-Achebe who is a hematology/oncology specialist at Harvard University’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. They have three sons.
