Ola Kalu, PhD, EdS is a postdoctoral research fellow in Community Violence Prevention, researching recovery programs for injured youth. Her work examines societal inequities and uses critical frameworks to empower underserved groups
Ola Kalu, PhD, EdS is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for Academic Diversity and Community Violence Prevention under the mentorship of Rachel K. Myers, PhD, and Heather Burris, MD, MPH. Her dissertation examined urban gentrification's impact on Florida's educational and behavioral health outcomes through spatiotemporal analysis of school resources, housing policies, and socioeconomic conditions. Building on this foundation, her postdoctoral work expands to spatial and structural determinants of community violence and maternal health, with particular focus on how place-based dynamics affect youth and birthing mothers across generations.
Through CHOP's Violence Intervention Program, Ola integrates spatial analysis, multilevel modeling, and community-based approaches to study recovery pathways for youth experiencing community violence. She investigates how geographic accessibility to mental health services, medical care, and essential resources influence recovery for vulnerable populations, using GIS mapping and service-gap analyses to strengthen violence-prevention interventions.
Complementing her youth-focused research, Ola examines reproductive healthcare disparities through an asset-based approach. Collaborating with community partners, she investigates how systemic disinvestment and obstetric violence affect highly burdened populations.
With an expanding portfolio in transdisciplinary research and community engagement, Ola's goal is to bridge scholarship and practice by highlighting how place, power, and policy converge to shape health outcomes in youth and mothers.
BA, Florida State University (English), 2010
MS, Florida International University (Education), 2013
Ed.S, University of Florida (Curriculum and Instruction), 2015
PhD, State University of New York (Sociology), 2024
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Center for Injury Research and Prevention, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Diversity Fellow, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Academic Diversity Fellow, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
New York Chapter of American Colleges of Physicians
American Educational Research Association
American Sociological Association
Association of Black Sociologists
Sociologists for Women in Society
New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians Health Disparities Fellow (2021)
13th Annual Asa G. Hillard III and Barbara Sizemore Research Course on African Americans and Education (2020)
Presidential Doctoral Fellowship for Research Training in Health Disparities (2018)
Bhatia, R., Valdez, S., Blaise, C., Kalu, O., & Ramsawak, J. (2023). The Albany Birth Justice Storytelling Project: Integrating Feminist Pedagogy into Research Design. Feminist Formations, 35(2), 106-128.
Odusanya, A., Reid, K., Amutah-Onukagha, N., Robinson, K., Kalu, O., Lawrence, W., & Lin, Z. (2022). Association between sociodemographic characteristics and age stopped breastfeeding on early childhood weight status. Obesity Research & Clinical Practice.
Kalu, O. (2021). Minority Health Disparities in a 21st-century Pandemic: A Comprehensive report of project research focused on New York.