Dr. Abimbola Fapohunda (DrPH MPH MS) is a trained epidemiologist and health educator with over 19 years’ experience of running her consulting company and being in public health. She teaches part-time at the Department of Africana Studies, University of Pittsburgh and has conducted several studies among African Americans, Africans in the Diaspora and on the African Continent. The focus of her current research is African immigrants and Refugees Experience during COVID-19 pandemic, she conducted a survey to explore factors that contribute to a healthy community for Black immigrants. She is also conducting research abroad training healthcare practitioners on cancer awareness. In February 2019, Dr. Fapohunda and Lakeshore Cancer Center in Lagos, Nigeria completed four training workshops on cancer awareness for healthcare practitioners.

She was the Principal Investigator (PI) on an immigrant study that examines Arab Americans’ Perceptions of Healthy Eating and Physical Activity. She was also the Co-PI on the study that investigates African Immigrants’ Perceptions and Practices around Healthy Eating and Physical Activity through photovoice; and utilizing her graduate training in food, nutrition, and food hygiene, she has conducted health and nutrition workshops for a diverse group of community-based organizations in Greater Pittsburgh. She is the Co-PI on the study that seeks to explore and understand the beliefs, perceptions and practices of young adult offspring of African immigrants regarding what healthy eating and health activity is in the context of their environment and culture.

She was awarded funding by the University’s Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI) to collaborate with the Redeem Christian Church of God in Pittsburgh, PA and the African Cultural and Resource Center in Silver Springs, MD on developing a research plan for prevention of obesity among African Immigrants Resident in Allegheny County, PA and Montgomery County, MD, using a Community-based Participatory Research approach.

Dr. Abimbola Fapohunda has spent the past 20 years as an independent consultant, conducting needs assessments and program evaluation on the effectiveness of numerous community-based initiatives related to health disparities in both behavioural and physical health, including nutrition, smoking cessation, HIV/AIDS and oral health. She has also contracted for several years with the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), Center for Public Health Practice, University of Pittsburgh, to conduct program evaluation through their Public Health Training Center (PHTC) as part of the role she held for two years in the Graduate School of Public Health – Visiting Assistant Professor of Behavioural and Community Health Sciences. She currently teaches three courses – Being Human in the Age of COVID-19, African American Health Issues and Health in the African Diaspora at the Department of Africana Studies, University of Pittsburgh.

She was involved in a community-based evaluation project focusing on disparities in academic achievement among minorities and she served as a member of the Research Advisory Committee of the Center for Family Excellence’s Racial Achievement Gaps educational justice project. She is also a board of director for the East Liberty Family Health Center – Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and the president of Pittsburgh Area African Professionals Organization (PAAPO.