2026 40 Under 40 Honoree: Deborah Tosin Akanya (34)
“Women should not have to make themselves smaller, quieter or less ambitious to make other people comfortable.”
PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA
Deborah Tosin Akanya
MD, Director of Cardiac Catheterization Lab, UPMC Jameson
Deborah Tosin Akanya has become comfortable, as she puts it, “being uncomfortable.” She grew up in Nigeria, moved to Ukraine for medical school and started over again in the United States, eventually entering interventional cardiology, a specialty where women remain relatively rare.
Today, she directs the cardiac catheterization lab at UPMC Jameson in New Castle. Each move taught Akanya how to enter an unfamiliar system, figure out what works and ask what could work better.
At Jameson, that has meant expanding the cardiovascular care patients can receive close to home and building a cath lab culture where nurses, technologists and physicians operate as one team.
“There is very little room for ego,” she says of responding to a heart attack. “Everyone has a role, and everyone has to trust the person standing beside them.” Akanya is also completing an Executive MBA at Pitt and mentoring aspiring medical professionals, particularly those who may not see an obvious path into medicine.
“I believe talent is everywhere,” she says. “But opportunity and access are not.”
