Dr. Sofia Adawy Akintunde is a family medicine physician who has dedicated her life and career to advancing health equity in historically disinvested communities.
As a first-generation Egyptian American, Dr. Adawy Akintunde grew up in the Greater Chicagoland area. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Chicago and her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, where she also completed her Family Medicine residency.
Her career began at Mile Square Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center, where she held both clinical and academic leadership roles.
At age 31, Dr. Adawy Akintunde was diagnosed with breast cancer. This experience profoundly shaped her understanding of healing and deepened her commitment to caring for patients and communities beyond traditional clinical models.
In 2018, her work led her to the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), a nonprofit organization on Chicago’s South Side focused on health, wellness, and social change. As Senior Health Center Director, she served in an executive leadership role, leading
clinical strategy and operations, including the organization’s transition to Federally Qualified Health Center status and its clinical response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, she was appointed Chief Health Officer for Chicago Public Schools, where she held a dual role with the Chicago Department of Public Health. In this capacity, she led district-wide efforts to eliminate health-related barriers to learning and advance child health equity, overseeing health services, nursing, health promotion, and benefits access for more than 330,000 students.
Currently, Dr. Adawy Akintunde serves as the Chief Medical Officer of Thrive South Side, where she leads population health strategy, quality improvement, and cross-sector partnerships to improve outcomes across a network of healthcare providers and community-based organizations.
She serves on the Board of Directors for Healthy Communities Foundation and Chicago House and is a member of the Chicago Children’s Museum Community Council. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
She speaks Arabic and Spanish in addition to English and lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband and children. Her interests include food, fashion, music, niche areas of history, collecting works from living artists, and being near the ocean.