Folake Olayinka

Folake Olayinka is a physician and global health leader. Since October 2020, she has served as the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Global Immunization lead/STAR Fellow. She also served as Technical and Strategy lead for the COVID-19 Vaccine Access and Delivery Initiative, Washington DC, United States.

Quotes

• "My project looks both at the context of advanced countries with strong health systems as well as countries where their health systems aren’t as strong. My goal is that my findings will help advance learning, awareness, and advocacy around women’s leadership in health, especially in a time of crisis when effective leadership is needed most."
  • Responding to a question on her Leadership Journey Project
• "The health workers on the frontlines – particularly the community-based workers, many of whom are women – are the backbone of all of these efforts. They operate under incredible circumstances to ensure that their communities have access to life-saving health services"
  • Speaking on the role of health workers in Public health services
• "The places that are likely to have variants or spikes in cases are also the same places where the systems to deal with them are also very weak."
  • Speaking on the challenges of the COVID-19 variants
• "Rapidly changing information led to a complex cycle of responses but at the center of this conversation is the recognition that the intersection between public health leadership and political leadership holds the key to getting ahead of the disease."
  • Speaking on effective Political leadership when managing pandemics
• "I think we must be very intentional in focusing on women’s health. Women have borne the brunt of COVID-19 in terms of job loss, their overall wellbeing, gender-based violence, the unpaid care burden, and the list goes on. Women have suffered disproportionately from the pandemic. So, we need to be intentional in recognizing this and also taking action to reverse this situation."
  • Speaking on inclusion of women in recovery plans and strategies
• "Another critical question is what type of leadership is needed to get through such an unprecedented crisis? New Zealand presents an effective leadership model not only through their rapid and aggressive response, but also a strong adaptive leadership in that complex intersection of politics, health and economics."
  • Speaking on New Zealand's leadership model during the pandemic
• "Successful vaccination not only entails managing logistics of vaccine delivery, but also building widespread trust in vaccination, including among the health personnel prioritized for vaccination and tasked with providing the service."
  • Speaking on trust building for successful vaccination efforts
• "I’m a Nigerian-American, and I grew up for the first nine years of my life in Nigeria. I have seen firsthand what the impact of polio, measles, and all of that have on populations, specifically kids. To me, getting vaccines was something that had to do with social status and the economic capabilities of your parents to take you to the hospital way back then. But now, thanks to UNICEF and the United Nations, it’s made that so much easier to give children access to vaccinations."
  • Speaking on why she joined Shot@Life