The city of Chicago, one of the most populous in the United States, is currently undergoing an unprecedented transformation to become an equitable, safe, resilient, and healthy haven where everyone can thrive and achieve their optimal health. Leading this charge is Nigeria’s Dr Olusimbo Kehinde Ige, whose appointment in November 2023 as Commissioner for the Chicago Department of Public Health makes her the first Black woman to hold this distinguished position.
Announcing the historic appointment, Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago declared: “Dr Ige is a tremendous addition to not just our administration, but to the City of Chicago. Dr Ige is someone who understands the balance between hard data and community interaction when assessing public health problems and solutions. With decades of experience in public health, she brings a clear-eyed understanding of both the challenges and the opportunities that the Chicago Department of Public Health and our city face, and how we will collectively overcome them. She will lead with compassion, competency, and collaboration in moving our public health department and our city forward.”
Robust resume
Mayor Johnson’s confidence in Ige’s competence and suitability for the prestigious role is well-founded. The public health specialist has had a remarkable career spanning nearly two decades. Before her appointment in Chicago, Ige worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nigeria as a capacity building officer. In this role, she provided technical support to the Malaria Control Programme at the Oyo State Ministry of Health, developing operational and training plans aligned with national malaria-control goals and objectives.
Between July 2014 and January 2015, She worked with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) as the senior programmes manager, leading several initiatives linked to the Imagine No Malaria campaign. This anti-malaria initiative, run by the United Methodist Church in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, targeted communities most affected by malaria, providing support for malaria control, prevention, and treatment, as well as revitalising local health facilities. Under her leadership, the programme served over five million mothers and children in nine countries.
From 2015 to 2019, Ige served as the executive director of Global Health at the United Methodist Global Ministries. In this role, she provided strategic direction for the structural, process, and outcome improvements of over 300 mission hospitals and clinics globally. She also guided the development and implementation of strategic plans, policies, standards of performance, and metrics for 16 field offices.
Through her work with the United Methodist Church Global Ministries, Ige significantly contributed to the United Nations’ ‘‘Every Woman Every Child’’ movement, which seeks to intensify commitments towards keeping the health and well-being of women, children, and adolescents at the heart of development. Ige and her team made a commitment to reach one million children with life-saving interventions and reduce mortality among children under five. The project successfully designed and implemented interventions that ensured vulnerable children had access to essential health services, received full immunisations, and were treated for the most lethal childhood diseases. Statistics show that, between 2015 and 2020, a total of 1,075,732 children—exceeding the one million target—were reached with life-saving interventions, ensuring access to essential health services up to the age of five.
Ige also led the training of country directors and health coordinators in each of the participating countries, 13 of which are in Africa, helping them identify local resources, facilities, and staff, and produce health programmes tailored to local circumstances and barriers. Ultimately, she and her colleagues successfully transitioned leadership to most of the hospitals they worked with during her tenure.
Further feats
Ige also previously served as the assistant commissioner at the Bureau of Health Equity Capacity Building at New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. There, she was instrumental in devising and implementing health programmes aimed at reducing disparities in health outcomes among ethnic minority groups. She ensured that socially disadvantaged communities were not excluded from public health services and support.
As assistant commissioner, Ige also led the Community Engagement Branch of the New York City COVID-19 Emergency Response. She served as a key advisor to the commissioner, COVID-19 Vaccine Command Centre, and other leadership staff in the agency. Between 2020 and 2021, she worked with community health workers to ensure adequate information and access to COVID-19 testing services for over 500,000 New York residents in ethnic minority groups in priority neighbourhoods. The work, which included community engagement and providing links to vital resources, resulted in reduced hospitalisation and death rates within targeted communities.
Ige equally provided leadership for more than 80 staff and oversaw bureau activities in strategic direction, programmatic development and oversight, research, evaluation, monitoring, and budgeting. She further provided guidance and visionary leadership in developing and articulating strategies to address social determinants of health and social well-being across 33 priority neighbourhoods city-wide. She also implemented place-based strategies to address mental health crises and support community resilience by collaborating with intra- and inter-agency colleagues.
Additionally, Ige served as managing director of Healthcare and Public Health System Transformation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the largest philanthropy in America dedicated solely to health.
Using her academic expertise in epidemiology and public health, she has reviewed and published scores of journal articles for a range of prestigious journals, including the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the International Journal of Health Research, and the Greener Journal of Medical Sciences. As a member of the Epidemiology Society of Nigeria, she was tasked with reviewing submissions for the African Epidemiology Conference of 2019.
Brilliant background
Like many public health enthusiasts, Dr Ige’s passion for medicine and health equity was sparked by witnessing the devastating impact of preventable illnesses in her community. Born and raised in Nigeria between 1979 and 1997, she obtained her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree from the University of Ibadan in 2005. In 2010, she earned an MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the same institution.
Ige began her medical career as a resident doctor in community medicine at University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. She ultimately decided to focus on prevention and public health approaches, believing these would save many more lives than treating individual diseases. According to her, “I also realised that to be an effective public health physician, I had to keep abreast of best practices. I was convinced that if I could get further exposure to global health best practices through a world-renowned university, I would be well placed to succeed in my chosen field.”
In 2012, she applied for and was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to study for another master’s degree in Public Health at the University of Manchester, England. Since then, she has led several interventions focused on providing funds and training to rural hospitals and supporting the provision of integrated child health services worldwide. Her work has contributed to increased access to and improved quality of child health services, ultimately reducing preventable child deaths.
Her dedication to public health has been recognised with various awards and honours.
