London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Educational/professional background

I am a public health doctor and a research consultant working at the nexus of preventive medicine and public health. I have 7 years' of experience in the development, implementation, and evaluation of public health initiatives targeted at children and women living in underserved communities in Nigeria. I have a bachelor’s in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and an MSc Tropical Medicine and International Health from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I am currently pursuing an MBA at Quantic School of Business and Technology, USA.

What I enjoyed most about studying at LSHTM

Studying at LSHTM has always been my dream. I chose this school because it offered me the unique opportunity to be formally trained on epidemiology by world-renowned experts and gain superior foundational skills in quantitative/qualitative research, data analysis and designing public health interventions in low- and middle-income countries. My LSHTM degree not only prepared me for a move from clinical medicine to infectious disease epidemiology but also deepened my interest in global health and research in infectious and tropical diseases. The diversity of staff, students and global health lecturers provided a true international experience. It opened me to global public health volunteering experiences with Save The Children UK, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine, and Hygiene and Polygeia that I would not have had otherwise. Moreover, LSHTM served as an excellent networking and collaborative platform to apply my grassroots experiences of child health programming and translate it into evidence-based policy discussions and publications with other researchers based all over the world.

Since graduating I have been...

I am presently the lead principal investigator on a Royal Society of Tropical Medicine, and Hygiene (RSTMH) and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded research project assessing the impact and effectiveness of teacher led WASH intervention on handwashing practices and prevention of diarrhoea, undernutrition, and pneumonia among school children in primary schools in Lagos, Nigeria. The purpose of this research is to provide valuable evidence regarding School WASH programming that could contribute to changing policy, updating the WASH curriculum in schools and evidenced based information in building a road map to reduce disease burden associated with the prevalent unhealthy sanitation and hygiene practices of children in Nigeria and enhance individual health and community resilience. I also serve as the Executive Director of The Neo Child Initiative for Africa (TNCI), an NGO that seeks to improve access to essential healthcare services and sustainable education among children in low resource settings in Nigeria. Through this initiative, my team and I have conducted over 20 community health programs focused on WASH, Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition, Deworming, Malaria, and vaccine-preventable diseases like Pneumonia, Tetanus and Hepatitis and impacted over 20,000 children in Southwestern Nigeria. My team and I are currently implementing an Alive&Thrive/FHI360 funded project worth $30,000 on accelerating Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition practices across Nigeria through policy advocacy, socio and behavioural change communication, community mobilisation, mass media and strategic use of data. My proven track record in public health has earned me several humanitarian recognitions and awards including UK Alumni Award for Social Action 2024, the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Early Career Research Grant 2023, The Future Awards for Health and Wellness 2022 and British Council Future Leader Connect Fellowship in 2021.