The COVID-19 pandemic changed Maya Green’s (MD/MPH) perspective as a physician and person, and reminded her how short life is.
Green, who identifies as queer, decided to strike out on her own three years ago and create Onyx Medical Wellness so she could provide communities like South Shore, Austin and Roseland with high quality health care without unnecessary barriers. She also serves as Chief Medical and Health Equity Officer for Onyx.
Onyx is located on Chicago’s South Side with a focus on health care which is “convenient, compassionate and centered around patients rather than institutions,” Green said. She chose the name “Onyx” because the word represents strength, resilience and protection.
Green’s business is the culmination of her career aspirations. From an early age, she “saw both the strength of community and the inequities that existed in healthcare, education and opportunity” and watched resilient people in her South Side Roseland (formerly Chatham) neighborhood struggle “because systems were not built to serve them equally.”
She also witnessed her close family friend and defining influence on her life Uncle Bee Bop experience discrimination and judgment because he was living with HIV. She said stigma isolated “someone I loved” and it has stayed with her ever since.
One thing Green learned from her Uncle Bee Bop’s experience is that providing care is more than treating disease. Green sees it as “restoring dignity, protecting humanity and challenging the systems and beliefs that cause people to suffer” before they even enter a doctor’s office.
After Green got her BS in biology from Alabama A&M University, she taught middle and high school science for four years. Teaching made Green understand education is “about meeting people where they are” because “every child learns differently, just as every patient has a different story.”
Green pivoted to medicine and got her MD/MPH from the University of Illinois College of Medicine with a focus on family medicine. She also decided to pursue an HIV Medicine Fellowship to help people like her Uncle Bee Bop, who was labeled “the other” because of his HIV positive medical diagnosis.
“I wanted specialized training so I could provide the highest level of clinical care while also helping dismantle the stigma that too often prevents people from seeking treatment,’ said Green, who added, “Rush University Medical Center had an outstanding fellowship with leaders who were shaping HIV care nationally.”
When Green finished her fellowship, she spent almost four years as an HIV specialist at the Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center. The most meaningful part of her job was to help “people understand that an HIV diagnosis didn’t define their future.”
Green developed the Miles for Smiles program at the CORE center, which built education and social support into care for those living with HIV. She has often said “stigma is more infectious than HIV” and “spreads faster than HIV ever could and destroyed more lives than the virus itself.”
In 2016, Green moved on to Howard Brown Health (Howard Brown), first as their Medical Director, then Regional Medical Director and finally Chief Medical Officer. She said one of her biggest contributions was to strengthen “quality improvement and clinical operations while helping the organization navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.” Green also led portions of Chicago’s COVID-19 clinical response which resulted in a Mayor’s Medal of Honor recognition. While at Howard Brown, Green was also part of a pioneering same day HIV treatment initiation team.
Green was additionally instrumental in the expansion of Howard Brown into Chicago’s South and West Side communities so neighborhoods with large Black and Latiné populations would have access to care closer to where they live.
In addition to Green’s work as a physician and business owner, she has also been invited to speak about a variety of medical topics to numerous medical institutions, organizations, programs and institutions and universities across the country.
“For me, speaking is simply another way of practicing medicine because education has the power to improve health,” she said.
Among Green’s accolades were being made an American College of Healthcare Executives Fellow as well as her induction into Chicago’s LGBT Hall of Fame in 2022, a Congressional Recognition Award, the Wellness Warrior Award presented by Sheryl Lee Ralph, the Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus Lori Branch Community Ally Award and Affinity Community Services Robbie Smith Award. She was also one of the 2025 Chicago Pride Parade Community Grand Marshals.
For Green, the work she now does seems especially vital.
“We are living through a time when many communities feel uncertain about their future, she said. “LGBTQ+ people, people living with HIV, immigrants, communities of color and many others are seeing rights and protections challenged in ways that can feel deeply personal.
“My message is simple: do not let fear replace community. Stay informed. Stay connected. Support organizations that are doing the work. Vote. Advocate. Show up for one another. History reminds us that progress has never been permanent. Every generation has had to defend human dignity, access to healthcare and equal opportunity.
“Protecting human life and dignity is what health care is fundamentally about and that mission doesn’t change because of politics. My commitment remains the same today as it was when I first entered medicine: to ensure that every person, regardless of who they are or whom they love, has access to compassionate, high quality health care and the opportunity to live a healthy life.”
