Mentor

Obidimma Ezezika

Assistant Professor, School of Health Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University, Founding Director and Principal Investigator, Global Health & Innovation Lab

Obidimma Ezezika (BSc, Ph.D., MEM, ACUE) is the Founding Director and Principal Investigator of the Global Health and Innovation Lab, an implementation science research and education initiative on the systematic uptake of evidence based interventions into routine practice in global health, and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University. Dr. Ezezika’s research lies at the nexus of global health and implementation science and examines how to scale evidence-based innovations to meet marginalized communities’ health needs locally and globally. These innovations range from mHealth (mobile health) technologies, vaccination campaigns, and infectious disease treatments, to large-scale nutrition programs. He is also the founder of the African Centre for Innovation and Leadership, Development; a non-profit organization focused on fostering innovation and youth leadership in Africa. Over the past 15 years, Ezezika has worked at several organizations taking innovations to scale, including the United Nations Development Program, the Ministry of Science and Technology (Nigeria), the Sandra Rotman Centre, and Grand Challenges Canada. He is the inaugural recipient of the Global Educator Award from the University of Toronto and the recipient of several international awards, including the D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning, and the Next Einstein Award. He has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in environmental management from Yale University.