Wenimo Okoya, EdD, MPH is a career advocate for building bridges between the health and education sectors. She is committed to promoting social mobility through strengthening the systems that touch children, youth, and families in communities of color. Her sweet spot is working with schools, organizations, and individuals to enhance their adoption of anti-racist, trauma sensitive cultures.
Dr. Okoya grew up in New Jersey and attended the University of Maryland, College Park where she majored in Kinesiology. Driven by her interest in ways to address the opportunity gap in education, she entered the Teach for America Corps in Newark, NJ where she taught middle school Science and History and continued teaching beyond her two-year commitment. After seeing that both education and health disparities were affecting her students and their families, she decided that good teaching was not enough. This realization pushed her to pursue a Master of Public Health at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and a Doctor of Education in Health Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
For six years she worked to build and grow a program at Children’s Health Fund called the Healthy and Ready to Learn (HRL) Initiative designed to promote health, well-being, and trauma sensitivity in high need schools in New York City and beyond. She currently works at the Jed Foundation as the Director of High School Program Implementation, bringing equity-focused mental health programming to schools across the country.
Dr. Okoya has studied the adoption of trauma sensitive practices and has linked her research and practice to promote systems change. She has trained over thousands of school-based and non-profit staff across NYC, presented at national conferences, and developed tailored content for organizations working to adopt healing centered practices. She is a skilled at holding safe space while facilitating healing-centered conversations and co-founded a restorative community space for educators who work with students of color called The Well.
She serves as an Assistant Professor at Lehman College, City College of New York and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. While Dr. Okoya’s experiences are varied, they all converge around a deep investment in shifting mindsets and creating inclusive spaces to promote health and well-being.
