We Are One

For Shade Olowookere ’17, global public health begins at home.

Disease. War. Famine. Natural disasters. For Shade Olowookere ’17, these are everyday work problems. A public health advisor in the Division of Global Health Protection, Global Health Center at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Olowookere supports international emergency response and recovery efforts. Her work involves research analysis, training, and developing partnerships, all in an effort to build public health capacity across the globe.

What does building health capacity look like? Recently, Olowookere traveled to Mozambique to work on emergency preparedness and to plan responses to water-borne disease outbreaks alongside local governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In describing her work, Olowookere speaks like a storyteller: “To get people to take notice, you have to make them care.

“It just takes one plane ride, one vacation, one interaction for disease transmission to occur. COVID-19 highlighted how interconnected we are and what ‘global’ means. The global community is a lot more connected than we realize.”

Olowookere has been interested in public health since her teens. A first-generation Nigerian American, she was raised in a household that defined family broadly.

“My parents showed me that you come to America seeking better opportunities for your children, but you don’t forget you have family and community outside of where you live currently,” Olowookere explains.

For as long as Olowookere can remember, her parents have supported a community center in Nigeria that is responsible for, among other things, the education and health care of its residents. “I grew up hearing, ‘This is for the children,’ whether it was money to pay for school fees or for a school nurse to come and visit. That’s been consistently in the forefront of my head, and I think that’s why I got interested in the humanitarian field.”

The Woonsocket, R.I., native chose URI for its proximity to her family, who live in Providence, and for the academic scholarships she received. She majored in health science, taking courses in epidemiology and global health. Mentors and friends say her instinct to help others was evident early. Molly Greaney, professor and department chair in the College of Health Sciences’ Department of Public Health, recalls that Olowookere was initially reserved but driven.

“Shade challenged herself to contribute to class discussions. She was intelligent, hardworking, and kind to fellow students. She was motivated and future-oriented,” Greaney says. “She held several campus leadership positions in organizations focused on diversity, completed several internships, and volunteered with the Rhode Island Public Health Association.”

Bethania Badeau ’17 has known Olowookere since seventh grade. Their friendship flourished, though, in their shared experience of URI’s Talent Development Program, an admission and retention program for students of color and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“I will never forget the time I was not feeling well during our freshman year, and Shade took care of me, bringing me soup, tea, and cough medicine,” Badeau says. “Having her as a roommate was a blessing.”

And an inspiration.

“Shade is organized, prompt, detail-oriented, ambitious, and very hardworking,” Badeau says. “What I value most, though, is how big her heart is. She is the most caring person I have ever met and treats every individual with love and kindness.”

In her junior year, Olowookere participated in Winter J-Term, an academic mini-semester offered in January. The course, Global Health Experience, included the opportunity to study in Guatemala.

In Guatemala, Olowookere experienced health care at both personal and policy levels. She visited an elementary school, watching children engaged in physical and speech therapy. At a local hospital, she observed physical therapists. She toured a manufacturing center that specializes in products for people with disabilities. At a maternal health clinic, she saw how NGOs and medical professionals partner in health care.

“I can point to that J-Term experience as the moment I knew public health was what I wanted to do,” Olowookere says. “It showed me what theory looks like in practice. It solidified for me a goal of pursuing a postgraduate education in global health.”

“We help prevent diseases from crossing borders and potentially reaching the U.S. Working together is essential because we are a shared global community.”

­—Shade Olowookere ’17

After graduating from URI, Olowookere earned two master’s degrees from the University of Georgia, in health administration and public health. At the CDC, Olowookere has worked to support emergency responses to COVID-19, the 2021 Haiti earthquake, and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Her work has impressed upon her how closely connected human beings are.

“Many countries we work with have good public health systems,” says Olowookere, “but need technical support to build capacity. We help prevent diseases from crossing borders and potentially reaching the U.S. Working together is essential because we are a shared global community.”

Olowookere’s emphasis on community is no surprise to her classmate, Danielle Amoako ’17, who met Olowookere when both were members of Sankofa, a Christian ministry group on campus. “Shade cares deeply for the people around her,” Amoako says. “She emanates the brightest of lights.”

Recently, the community center Olowookere’s family supports lost electricity, a consequence of an unstable electrical grid. In this community, Olowookere says, an outage is more than an inconvenience. It’s a threat to the community’s well-being.

“Even though there are generators at the community center, they’re often without consistent power for days,” Olowookere says. The center hosts an after-school program and serves as a cultural hub for the community. One problem begets another. “So, the question is, what can we do longterm?”

For Olowookere, the fate of children a world away is also her own.

“Even as we strive to improve things for ourselves, we can be thinking about how what we do improves things for the person behind or ahead of us.”

—Marybeth Reilly-McGreen

PHOTOS: SETH JACOBSON