Welcome to this special episode with Dr. Ijeoma Nnodim Opara MD, FAAP, FAIM. As a distinguished physician, educator, and advocate, Dr. Opara brings her profound expertise and passion to the forefront against anti-blackness and colonisation. In this episode, she explores the deep-rooted systemic injustices faced by the global majority and the transformative power of decolonizing our minds, institutions, and societies.
Join us as we envision a future grounded in equity and justice. ‘None of us are free unless and until all of us are free. So collective liberation is the key, right there.’
We are really privileged to have benefitted from Dr. Opara’s time and insights, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
For more on her work, read her piece It’s Time to Decolonize the Decolonization movement:
https://speakingofmedicine.plos.org/2021/07/29/its-time-to-decolonize-the-decolonization-movement/
Dr. Ijeoma Nnodim Opara
Dr. Ijeoma Nnodim Opara MD, FAAP, FAIM is a Chief Visionary & Disruptor at OparaSpeaks and a double-board certified Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Paediatrics at WSUSOM, Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine-Paediatrics residency, and attending physician with Wayne State University Physician Group.
She is the founding director of an innovative initiative and curriculum “Health Equity and Justice in Medicine” which combines critical reflection, community engagement, scholarship, and advocacy to address social and structural determinants of health and health disparities. She is Chair of the SEMCME committee on social determinants of health education and the Detroit Medical Center Graduate Medical Education Center for Quality Improvement, social determinant of health section.
She is also co-founding director of Wayne State University Global Health Alliance, a multidisciplinary organisation created to unify university and regional global health practitioners and create a collaborative community of best practice in global and urban health. She co-created and co-directs the Global Urban Health & Equity curriculum (GLUE), an innovative interprofessional comprehensive certificate and competency-based global health curriculum.
She has a long history of leadership in service to the African immigrant and African American communities and co-founded Africans in Medicine, whose mission is to unite African medical professionals to further the health interests of Africans living on the continent.
Dr Opara writes extensively on decolonisation and health equity. Her recent articles include:
- AddREssing Social determinants TO pRevent hypErtension (the RESTORE network): overview of the Health Equity Research Network to prevent hypertension
https://academic.oup.com/ajh/article/36/5/232/7121567 - Impact of race and socioeconomic status on outcomes in patients hospitalized with COVID-19
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-020-06527-1 - and the much cited and discussed It’s Time to Decolonize the Decolonization Movement
https://speakingofmedicine.plos.org/2021/07/29/its-time-to-decolonize-the-decolonization-movement/
Her Mission Statement is to authentically embody joy and passionately promote justice as it relates to BIPOC & disenfranchised communities in the centering and celebration of our strengths and assets to optimise all aspects of our health and well-being through the lens of equity and intersectionality.