Yolanda Ogbolu, PhD, NNP, FNAP, FAAN

Titles

The Bill and Joanne Conway Dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing

Co-Director, Center for Health Equity and Outcomes Research

School Affiliation

School of Nursing

Specialties

  • Health Equity
  • Social Determinants of Health
  • Social Isolation

About

Dean Ogbolu’s interprofessional and community-engaged research and scholarship teaching, and professional activities have focused on addressing health inequities and disparities in care locally and globally. Her projects have centered on strengthening nurses’ capacity to impact global health, improving the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate care in rural and urban hospitals, and addressing social isolation and social determinants of health in marginalized communities. Her international efforts have sought to improve nursing practice in low-resource communities in Nigeria, Rwanda, and Liberia, and later to apply lessons learned from communities in Brazil to issues of social isolation in West Baltimore. She has garnered more than $12 million in funding, as principal investigator and co-investigator, from diverse state and federal agencies and foundations. She has received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for three global learning for health equity projects, one translating a social inclusion program from Brazil to Baltimore to reduce family social isolation in West Baltimore and the other building on this work to lead the development of a national global learning network to advance health equity by catalyzing communities across the United States. She is highly regarded for her collaborative spirit and currently leads the West Baltimore RICH (Reducing Isolation and Inequities in Cardiovascular Health) Collaborative, under a $2.4 million Pathways for Health Equity grant from the Maryland Community Health Resources Commission. This project includes a network of 15 community and faith-based organizations, academic institutions, and health care organizations working together to address hypertension and social isolation in West Baltimore. Engaged in local policy advocacy, Dean Ogbolu serves as the chair of the Social Determinants of Health Taskforce of Baltimore City, a novel policy intervention and the first legislatively mandated such committee in the nation. She has also served on taskforces to reduce disparities in newborn outcomes and to improve delivery of culturally and linguistically appropriate care.

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Tagged: Global Health  

This information was last updated January 12, 2024.