MOBILE, Ala. – Each year, Alabama celebrates the extraordinary women who are making a lasting impact across the state. One USA Healthprovider, leader and advocate earned a well-deserved place among the 2025 honorees of This is Alabama’s “Women Who Shape the State” class.

Ashley Williams Hogue, M.D., a trauma, acute care, and burn surgeon at USA Health and assistant professor of surgery at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, was recognized for her tireless dedication to her patients, her community, and public health advocacy.

Since 2023, Williams Hogue has served as director of the Center for Healthy Communities, a role in which she is tasked with addressing the root causes of health inequalities in the Mobile community where healthcare access can be a significant barrier for many.

Among her many impactful initiatives is Project Inspire, a hospital-based injury prevention program co-founded by Williams Hogue and her husband, Antwan Hogue, M.D., which seeks to reduce youth violence in the Mobile area. Project Inspire, through its hands-on approach to preventing gun violence and providing support for at-risk youth, has shown promising results in changing lives and offering new paths to success.

A skilled surgeon, Williams Hogue has received multiple professional and personal honors. She was selected as a Future Trauma Leader – one of the highest honors for a junior trauma surgeon – by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. Her presentation, “Project Inspire Pilot Study: A Hospital-Led, Comprehensive Intervention Reduces Gun Violence Among Juveniles Delinquent of Gun Crimes,” won the 2023 Cox-Templeton Injury Prevention Paper Competition hosted by the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. She is part of Mobile Bay Magazine’s 2024 40 Under 40 class.

The 2025 “Women Who Shape the State” honorees were celebrated at a special luncheon on last month at The Club in Birmingham.

About USA Health

USA Health, the health system for the University of South Alabama, the Flagship of the Gulf Coast, is the leading academic health system in the region. With more than 40 care delivery locations, including University Hospital, Children’s & Women’s Hospital, Providence Hospital and the Mitchell Cancer Institute, and physician practices throughout the area, the health system melds clinical care, research and healthcare education into the most advanced medical care in the region.