As Executive Director of Health Leads, Onie oversaw the organization's growth to Providence and New York City.
After attending Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and research assistant for Professors Laurence Tribe and Lani Guinier, Onie clerked for the Honorable Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
She was also an associate at Miner, Barnhill & Galland P.C., a boutique law firm in Chicago, where she represented civil rights plaintiffs, health centers, affordable housing developers, and nonprofits.
In 2009, she received a MacArthur Fellowship, for "individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction."
According to O: The Oprah Magazine, Onie and Health Leads "blew us away" by understanding "the power of the big picture."