Family and colleagues remembered Laura Kibuuka MD’16, who was killed by an Amtrak Acela Express train Jan. 2, as a talented woman passionate about health and community service.
Kibuuka was struck on the train track near South Attleboro, Mass. The MBTA Transit Police and the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the incident, and the Alpert Medical School held a memorial for Kibuuka Jan. 14.
Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing notified Med School students of Kibuuka’s death in an email Jan. 4, after Kibuuka’s name was released by MBTA police. President Christina Paxson notified the Brown community in an email Jan. 8.
Kibuuka, of Watertown, Mass., originally hailed from Mengo, Uganda, where she was inspired to pursue medicine “in part from her experience in Africa with the AIDS epidemic,” Paxson wrote. Kibuuka, who graduated with a degree in biology from the University of Massachusetts at Boston in 2009, also had a history of community service.
Kibuuka taught English as a Second Language to adults in Watertown and served as a mathematics teaching assistant for rising first-years at the University of Massachusetts, Paxson wrote. Kibuuka also interned with the biotechnology company Genzyme as an undergraduate and worked at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease at Massachusetts General Hospital as a research technician.
“She was basically talented in all areas of life,” mother Diana Kibuuka said, describing her daughter as a former track and field athlete who also “loved poetry.”
Kibuuka’s talents also shined in academics, her mother said.
“She was incredibly, incredibly intelligent, from her early days of life,” Diana Kibuuka said. “She was always on top of the class. That gave her the opportunity to be accepted in all the good schools.”
Kibuuka entered the Med School with the class of 2015, but she took a year off and was not on campus this fall. During her time at Brown, Kibuuka served as a representative for her class on the Student Health Council, an organization that “focuses on wellness and support of their colleagues,” said Philip Gruppuso, associate dean for medical education.
Students and administrators at the Med School organized remembrances to honor their classmate and pupil and helped collect money to return Kibuuka’s remains to Uganda.
“This has been a difficult time for the school, obviously, but things have come together in a really wonderful way,” Gruppuso said.
Med School students are a closely-knit group and Kibuuka’s passing has been difficult to cope with, Stanford Tran MD’15 said.
“It’s true for me, and it’s true for most people, that I’m closer with my Med School classmates than I’ve been with anyone else in my life,” Tran said. “You see your classmates five hours a day, every day of the week.”
To friends and family, Kibuuka was “very thoughtful, very giving,” her mother said. “She loved every one of us.”
Kibuuka is survived by her parents, Diana and Samuel, and siblings Peace Sserunkuma, Dennis Kibuuka, Kenneth Kibuuka, Jordan Kibuuka, Justin Kibuuka and Claire Kibuuka.
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