The daughter of a teacher and trader, Dr. Janet Antwi, popularly known as Dr. J. migrated from Ghana to the United States as a teenager aiming to maximize her educational opportunities.
One of the reasons why she was able to stay focused and excel in America was due to the fear of disappointing her parents and herself. “I always knew I had to succeed. It would be a shame to me and my family if I didn’t,” she expressed.
When she arrived in the states, she attended Collegiate Institute for math and science high school in Bronx New York. Taking chemistry classes made her realize chemistry was her forte; she understood and enjoyed labs and concepts. She holds a bachelor’s in Chemistry from SUNY Binghamton and Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from Ohio State University.
After getting her Ph.D, she secured a Faculty position where she currently works as a professor of chemistry teaching several courses including organic chemistry and biochemistry. In addition to teaching, her research focuses on the discovery of novel drugs towards the treatment of Neglected Tropical diseases such as Leishmaniasis which affects people in developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America.
Dr. J. is the first to get a doctorate in her family, and now is the only black faculty member in the division of Math, computer and natural science at her university. Being a minority in the room can come with lack of support but she’s learnt to motivate herself to get through it.
Dr. J. is married with 2 daughters. She is also the founder of “Mother Inspires,” a virtual space she created to provide moral support and encouragement for other moms.
“Mothers struggle in silence a lot,” she noted. She herself has had her fair share of challenges on this motherhood journey. She is always willing to share her struggles in order to uplift other women. She pointed out that sometimes, as Africans, if you have struggles, you are expected to keep that private. However she is willing to be transparent in order to encourage others. Some of the women on her platform have shared stories of infertility and miscarriage amongst others. These are occurrences they would have never shared unless someone who genuinely cares brought it up.
Another passion of her’s is to celebrate women who have risen about motherhood and life challenges and are thriving. She uses the social media trend “Woman Crush Wednesday” to honor and celebrate these women every Wednesday.
Eunice Ochuonyo, Dr. J.’s best friend says: “We met Freshman year of college at SUNY Binghamton. Janet is passionate about her family and she works very hard to find the balance between career, motherhood and life. She is dedicated to the betterment of future chemists and has inspired many to pursue a career in the chemistry field. She is God fearing, spends her time with family and friends maximizing opportunities to get closer to God and aligning her talents with God’s purpose for her life. I am lucky to call her my best friend because we laugh about anything through life.”
Her future goals includes going back to Ghana in partnership with pharmaceutical companies to find potent and novel drugs toward the treatment of neglected tropical diseases. This will be her own way of paying it forward. Her success story teaches us to aim for the stars, and sometimes our struggles are not for us to conceal. Instead, we should own them, work through them, which in turn can be a source of relief and/or guidance for others.
