Jiwon Oh

Because Jiwon Oh has moved at least 15 times—most often between the U.S., Canada and South Korea, her birth country—she has had to quickly pick up local cultures and make new friends. “The places in which you live educate you, become a part of you and ultimately change who you are,” she says. “Moving made me realize how important it is to have an open mind.”

Moving also taught Oh the value of family. As she traveled from place to place, the only real constant was the set of people with her. “Home isn’t a physical location, but the people surrounding you who understand who you are and where you’ve been,” she says. The importance of neurological health became clear to Oh when she was just a child and her mother had a stroke. In medical school, she focused on neurology with a subspecialty in multiple sclerosis.

By combining a clinical fellowship in neuroimmunology and training in clinical investigation, Oh plans to extend her reach past individual patients to a broader, public health focus. “As an academic clinical investigator,” she says, “I’m hoping to make a difference in this field.”