Professor Omolola Irinoye
Our Leadership
Professor Omolola Irinoye
Professor Omolola Irinoye started her nursing education from the School of Nursing, University College Hospital Ibadan and proceeded to the University of Ibadan where she had her Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree. She had her Masters Degree in Nursing from the Obafemi Awolowo University and another Masters degree in Women, Development and Administration from University of York, York, United Kingdom as a Chevening Scholar. Her Ph.D. in Nursing was from the University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban South Africa. She was also an International Visiting Scholar to the University of Maryland School of Nursing, Office of Global Health, University of Maryland, USA in 2013.
She practiced briefly at the University College Hospital, (UCH) briefly before her University education and worked in private practice for some years after the mandatory national youth service. She joined the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife as Lecturer II and rose through the ranks to become a Professor of Community-Public Health Nursing. She is a Registered Nurse-Midwife-Public Health Nurse and a Nurse Educator.
She had academic awards at all levels of her education from the School of Nursing through to the University and thereafter. These include the Abbot Laboratory Award in Nutrition, School of Nursing, UCH, Ibadan, (1980); the Bronze Academic Medal of the School of Nursing, UCH, Ibadan (1980); the Departmental Award, Department of Nursing, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, (1984); Award for an outstanding piece of Master’s work given by the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York, York, U.K. (1999); Federal Government Scholarship Award (1989/90); the British Chevening Scholarship Award (1997/98); The Carnegie Fellowship Award for Female Academic Staff of the Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (2004). She was also among the few National Trainers in Distance Learning from an award by the British Council in conjunction with the National Universities Commission in 2011. At the national level, she had the Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award – Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Award of the Year in 2018. She recently was given the Fellowship of the Occupational Safety Society of Nigeria.
She has won some research grants over the years including the Visiting Researcher’s Grant of the Medical Research Council of South Africa (2002); Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Small Grant for Thesis Writing (2004); The HIV Research Trust Grant, U.K. (2004). I also got the French Embassy “Research in Health, Innovation, Information And Artificial Intelligence” FSPI (RS3I) Project Grant for OAU to work on E-Health Systems for Strengthening Health Literacy, Promotion, Screening and Health Care Access for Population Groups (2022).
As a certified Trainer for Distance Learning Education by the National Universities Commission she has facilitated several trainings for capacity building for the deployment of e-Learning in Open and Distance learning education for in Nursing and other programmes with the commitment to enhancing access to education. She continues to collaborate with individuals, organizations, institutions, organizations, agencies and communities to drive improved and quality access to education, nursing education and health care services adopting the blended learning approach and technology moderated health care delivery approach. She is actively collaborating with others in developing software to enhance health promotion and access to health care for vulnerable populations while promoting research and capacity building for the utilization of such at the community level. She continues to serve as consultant to many international, national, and local organizations on projects, programmes and service conception, development and evaluation for many years in the areas of sexual & reproductive health and programming for care of vulnerable populations as her major research and service delivery interests.
Nationally, she contributed to the development of the first National Plan of Action for care and support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Nigeria in 2008 and have worked with core organizations that mobilized for care and support to reduce the burden of HIV and AIDS in the country for many years. I am currently working as the lead consultant to the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to conduct a national survey on the status of vulnerable children in Nigeria. I am a gender and human right activist and continues to participate in advocacy and capacity building interventions in all these areas especially as such contribute to health and health care access in family context.
As a scholar, she has co-authored a book on leadership roles of female students in Nigerian tertiary institutions and contributed to a book on responses and coping strategies to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Africa. She has over one hundred publications in reputable national and international journals and eight technical reports. She has participated in several national and international conferences, workshops and seminars. She has conducted several workshops building capacities for research, curriculum enhancement, education/training, programme development and service delivery for health and social services. She has served and continues to serve as resource to many institutions nationally and internationally as assessors, examiners, and facilitators in developing and upgrading curricula and programmes. I served as a Training Specialist with the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing in the Human Resource for Health Project at the School of Nursing and Midwifery of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda for 2 years. She has supervised many masters and doctoral students and continues to supervise and mentor students and young academics.
Her specialty of practice and interest is public/community health nursing though she teaches, conduct research, mentor and support service delivery across all specialties in nursing and social sciences. As a resource, she has contributed to the establishment, upgrade and implementation of nursing programmes at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels nationally and regionally. She has demonstrated leadership in the teaching, administration, research and community services as an academic and scholar supporting the establishment of new undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in many universities in and outside Nigeria. She is the current Vice-Chancellor of Achievers University, Owo, Nigeria.