By Vantage Staff
One of the two Wichita women killed in a car accident Saturday evening in Wichita was a recent Newman University graduate.
Police told local media that A’Niah Bell, 25, was transported to the hospital after the accident, which happened about 9:30 p.m. at Central and Webb in Wichita. She later died. Her mother, 42-year-old LaShea Bell, also was killed in the accident.
A’Niah walked across the Hartman Arena stage in May to pick up her master’s degree from Newman’s Biomedical Science Program. She was among the first group of students to receive the degree from Newman, said Clark Schafer, Newman’s director of University Relations. Newman started the program in August 2023.
Dr. Tomoko Bell, an assistant professor of biology at Newman, said that the master’s program was conducted online and that she had met with A’Niah virtually for an oral mid-term exam and to help her prepare her medical school application.
Bell shared an email that she said she sent on Tuesday to her division. The message asked for prayers for A’Niah.
“She was waiting for her results to enroll to med school over the summer and working really hard,” Tomoko Bell wrote in the e-mail, adding that A’Niah was a “brilliant mind” who planned to become an OB-GYN focused on underserved communities.
According to local media reports, police said A’Niah and her mother were killed after a black Chevy truck driving east on Central collided with their white BMW and with a gray Jeep, which were both traveling south on Webb.
LaShea was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Jeep was treated at the scene of the crash and released.
Police later arrested the 80-year-old driver of the Chevy on suspicion of two counts of second-degree homicide.
Police also told local media that they believed speed and alcohol were factors in the crash.
A’Niah also was featured on a Newman Graduate Science blog in April 2024. The blog post, which included three photos of A’Niah, said that she earned her undergraduate degree in Biosystems Engineering on a pre-health track at the University of Arizona and that while there, she worked on research in the Micro/Nano Fabrication Center. The award-winning research she did with her senior design team was later published in the medical journal of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs.
She also shadowed in local medical offices and worked as a medical scribe.
A’Niah was a 2018 graduate of Wichita Collegiate School.
PHOTO: Courtesy, Newman Graduate Science Blog
