Ashley Matthew, MD, PhD '20

Urology resident, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System

“The best part about UMass Chan Medical School is that we have early interactions with patients. For this reason, I felt very prepared for residency.”

Ashley Matthew, MD, PhD’20, started her urology residency at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System earlier than expected. The T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2020 graduated three months early to get more doctors into the workforce at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I believe that the confidence and selflessness of my classmates speaks to the type of students that matriculate into the T.H. Chan School of Medicine. More importantly, it speaks to the fact that the T.H. Chan School of Medicine prepares you very well clinically,” Dr. Matthew said.

Each year, Chancellor Michael F. Collins chooses one graduating student from each of UMass Chan’s three schools to receive the Chancellor’s Award. Matthew had the rare honor of obtaining the Chancellor’s Award for both the T.H. Chan School of Medicine and the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

“These awards speak to the supportive environment that allowed me to be my best self,” Matthew said. “The best part about UMass Chan Medical School is that we have early interactions with patients, which ultimately helps us as students feel comfortable gathering a history, performing an exam and developing appropriate assessments/plans for patients. For this reason, I felt very prepared for residency.”

Matthew said her time with Celia A. Schiffer, PhD, the Arthur F. and Helen P. Koskinas Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology and chair and professor of biochemistry & molecular biotechnology, prepared her to turn papers around quickly. Matthew was the first author on a paper in her third month of residency and has been published several times since.

Matthew is a 2012 graduate of Xavier University, where she majored in chemistry and minored in mathematics and biology. She studied at UMass Chan Medical School alongside her twin sister, Asia Matthew-Onabanjo, MD, PhD’21.