Portia is originally from Zimbabwe, and grew up in Mooresville, North Carolina. Portia attended UNC for undergraduate and completed a two-year MPH program in Epidemiology at the Indiana University School of Public Health. With her MPH degree, she worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Richmond, Virginia as a Public Health Advisor- working to mobilize community partners to participate in health fairs and events in predominantly Black and Latino communities in the area.  She is actively involved with the SNMA, and currently serves as a student mentor to offer academic support to mentees at UNC.  She also served as the Whitehead Medical Society (student government) Application Phase Co-President, the Whitehead Medical Society Co-VP for Curriculum Affairs, and secretary of the UNC SNMA chapter. In her free time, she is a competitive racquetball player and continues to enjoy filming and videography, playing guitar, and writing music. She has found ways to combine her creative interests and academics in many ways, including documenting a summer volunteer experience through UNC in a rural area of Mexico.