Abena Dwamena, Pharm D

What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?

Trust comes from consistency. Moving from pharmacy practice into research taught me that people value someone who shows up prepared, communicates problems clearly, follows through on commitments, and gives others credit.

What do you consider to be your most important career achievement or milestone?

Successfully transitioning from clinical pharmacy in Ghana to neuroscience research in the US. It meant rebuilding everything, relearning how to think, write, and communicate science in a new system. It has given me a research focus that stays grounded in patient welfare.

What do you aspire to accomplish in your career and why? What obstacles will you overcome?

I want patients and families facing Alzheimer’s to have hope. I want to help develop new drug therapies for the disease. Alzheimer’s research is biologically complex and clinical trials often fail, but I intend to stay consistent and push through to discover a better treatment.

Describe an amazing opportunity in your STEM career.

Running my own dissertation project has been an amazing opportunity. I get to design the methods, troubleshoot, defend my project, and communicate my results. Having this level of intellectual ownership is a critical step toward becoming an independent researcher.

How was AWIS helped you professionally and/or personally?

AWIS supports my journey by connecting me with women building scientific careers across disciplines. As an African woman pursuing neuroscience research in the US, it is valuable to experience this.

What is your favorite word? (only one word)

Resilience.

How do you define it?

No matter how many times you fall, you can always get back up and start again. This is important in research because if an experiment fails, you can always start again.

How has this word influenced or inspired your career?

Resilience is pushing me through my PhD. It has kept me going when experiments failed for months, and I had to redo everything from the beginning. It has taught me to take every failed attempt as a lesson rather than a limitation.

How does AWIS impact your career journey?

AWIS puts me in a room with other women in STEM who have already faced what I’m facing in my PhD journey, such as imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and the pressure to prove I belong. Knowing I am not the first to experience this keeps me grounded.

What are you currently reading or listening to?

I mostly listen to lifestyle podcasts and worship music.

What do you consider the best professional or personal advice you’ve ever received?

When life doesn’t go as planned, treat the outcome as a lesson, not a failure. And don’t go through it alone; lean on your community.

Abena Dwamena, Pharm D, is a third-year PhD candidate at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center studying Neuroscience and Pharmacology. She studies how neuronal stress response pathways contribute to Alzheimer’s pathology. Before moving to the US, she trained as a PharmD and practiced as a pharmacist in Ghana for three years. Her work has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals, and she serves as an invited reviewer for Stem Cells International Journal.