By Carol Marie Cropper

Dr. Aditi Raye Allen Arroway

Dr. Aditi Raye Allen Arroway’s path to obstetrics and gynecology coursed through Argentina and Chile, where she milked cows and made cheese on a dairy farm; through trail building in the White Mountains of New Hampshire; through the Texas Hill Country, where a newly discovered cave is named after her and her two siblings; and through a stint as a monkey in an Austin community theater production.

But the life experience that most directly inspired her to become a doctor was her years spent building houses for Habitat for Humanity while an undergraduate majoring in astronomy at UT Austin. “The volunteers and new homeowners, as well as the tangible results that appeared before my eyes, inspired me toward a life and career of service. That is when I began to consider becoming a doctor,” she said.

Dr. Arroway said she gravitated to the Ob/Gyn specialty because of her desire to stand up for women’s health. “I am inspired by women themselves and their strength as they navigate both the most difficult and wonderful moments,” she said, “and I want to help and empower them in those moments and throughout their lives.”

At UT Southwestern Medical School, Dr. Arroway worked with three other students to establish a new elective on Women’s Health and related topics. She also acted in and directed campus productions of “The Vagina Monologues,” a play meant to raise awareness about sexual and domestic violence.

She was chosen as the 2017 recipient of the Annelle M. Ahmed, M.D., Women’s Health Care Award. Given to a student who demonstrates exemplary women’s health care, the annual award honors Dr. Annelle M. Ahmed, a UT Southwestern Medical Center faculty member in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology who died of breast cancer at age 39.

“I am honored and humbled to receive this award that was created in the name of a wonderful and caring physician from the Department,” Dr. Arroway said. “I am inspired to work with compassion and grace as I take the next step in becoming the best physician I can be.”

“The Annelle Ahmed Award is given to a graduating Medical Student who epitomizes the clinician that Dr. Ahmed was – intelligent, caring, and involved in her community,” said Dr. Mary Jane Pearson, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and one of Dr. Arroway’s faculty mentors. “Raye started with an interest in astrophysics, perhaps not the most ‘warm and fuzzy’ field. However, she discovered her deeply felt interest in caring for patients – our gain and a loss to the astrophysics folks.”

Dr. Arroway grew up in San Antonio, where, she said, her parents encouraged her to pursue her interests and taught her to “work hard and dream big.”

She graduated as a Dean’s Honored Graduate in the College of Natural Sciences at UT Austin in 2012, with degrees in Astronomy Honors and Plan II Honors, a liberal arts degree.

At UT Southwestern, she not only participated in theater on campus, but acted in a new educational video as well.

“My most memorable Raye story will always be her participation, almost at the last minute, in creation of an excellent video created by the Surgery and Ob/Gyn Departments to teach scrubbing, gowning, and gloving to preclinical students. Raye was the Meryl Streep on the set – professional, poised, personable – a real trooper during the multiple takes of scene after scene,” said Dr. Pearson.

Dr. Arroway will now be moving to San Jose, California, with her new husband – Art Covert, a data scientist whom she wed April 22 – to begin her residency at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.