{"id":15117,"date":"2024-11-14T12:19:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=15117"},"modified":"2024-11-14T12:20:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:20:39","slug":"we-are-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/fall-2024\/we-are-one\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style>\n.architecture .architecture-department:nth-child(1){\n    color: #999;\n    letter-spacing: 3px;\n    font-size: 1rem;\n    font-weight: 400;\n    margin-top: 2em;\n    margin-bottom: 0;\n}\n\n.architecture .architecture-department{\n\ttext-transform: uppercase;\n\tfont-family: Hind, Arial, sans-serif;\n}\n\n<\/style>\n\n<div class=\"architecture\">\n\t<p class=\"architecture-department\">Network<\/p>\n\t<p class=\"architecture-department\">Close-up<\/p>\t\t\n<\/div>\n\n\n<section class=\"cl-wrapper cl-panel-wrapper\"><div class=\"cl-panel-super reverse  \"><div class=\"cl-panel-super-blur\" style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_hero2.jpg)\"><\/div><div class=\"cl-panel-super-content\"><div class=\"cl-panel-super-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_hero2.jpg\" srcset=\"\" alt=\"Shade Olowookere standing on a wet city sidewalk wearing a white button down shirt and a bright green cardigan.\"><\/div><div class=\"cl-panel-super-text\"><p>\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">We Are One<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"type-intro\">For Shade Olowookere \u201917, global public health begins at home.<\/p>\n\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n<p>Disease. War. Famine. Natural disasters. For Shade Olowookere \u201917, these are everyday work problems. A public health advisor in the Division of Global Health Protection, Global Health Center at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Olowookere supports international emergency response and recovery efforts. Her work involves research analysis, training, and developing partnerships, all in an effort to build public health capacity across the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does building health capacity look like? Recently, Olowookere traveled to Mozambique to work on emergency preparedness and to plan responses to water-borne disease outbreaks alongside local governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In describing her work, Olowookere speaks like a storyteller: \u201cTo get people to take notice, you have to make them care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt just takes one plane ride, one vacation, one interaction for disease transmission to occur. COVID-19 highlighted how interconnected we are and what \u2018global\u2019 means. The global community is a lot more connected than we realize.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Olowookere has been interested in public health since her teens. A first-generation Nigerian American, she was raised in a household that defined family broadly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy parents showed me that you come to America seeking better opportunities for your children, but you don\u2019t forget you have family and community outside of where you live currently,\u201d Olowookere explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For as long as Olowookere can remember, her parents have supported a community center in Nigeria that is responsible for, among other things, the education and health care of its residents. \u201cI grew up hearing, \u2018This is for the children,\u2019 whether it was money to pay for school fees or for a school nurse to come and visit. That\u2019s been consistently in the forefront of my head, and I think that\u2019s why I got interested in the humanitarian field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Woonsocket, R.I., native chose 溏心vlog免费B站 for its proximity to her family, who live in Providence, and for the academic scholarships she received. She majored in health science, taking courses in epidemiology and global health. Mentors and friends say her instinct to help others was evident early. Molly Greaney, professor and department chair in the College of Health Sciences\u2019 Department of Public Health, recalls that Olowookere was initially reserved but driven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShade challenged herself to contribute to class discussions. She was intelligent, hardworking, and kind to fellow students. She was motivated and future-oriented,\u201d Greaney says. \u201cShe held several campus leadership positions in organizations focused on diversity, completed several internships, and volunteered with the Rhode Island Public Health Association.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bethania Badeau \u201917 has known Olowookere since seventh grade. Their friendship flourished, though, in their shared experience of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Talent Development Program, an admission and retention program for students of color and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI will never forget the time I was not feeling well during our freshman year, and Shade took care of me, bringing me soup, tea, and cough medicine,\u201d Badeau says. \u201cHaving her as a roommate was a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And an inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShade is organized, prompt, detail-oriented, ambitious, and very hardworking,\u201d Badeau says. \u201cWhat I value most, though, is how big her heart is. She is the most caring person I have ever met and treats every individual with love and kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her junior year, Olowookere participated in Winter J-Term, an academic mini-semester offered in January. The course, Global Health Experience, included the opportunity to study in Guatemala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Guatemala, Olowookere experienced health care at both personal and policy levels. She visited an elementary school, watching children engaged in physical and speech therapy. At a local hospital, she observed physical therapists. She toured a manufacturing center that specializes in products for people with disabilities. At a maternal health clinic, she saw how NGOs and medical professionals partner in health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI can point to that J-Term experience as the moment I knew public health was what I wanted to do,\u201d Olowookere says. \u201cIt showed me what theory looks like in practice. It solidified for me a goal of pursuing a postgraduate education in global health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"887\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_quote1-887x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Shade Olowookere smiling and leaning against a metal railing wearing a white button down shirt and a bright green cardigan\" class=\"wp-image-15163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_quote1-887x1024.jpg 887w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_quote1-260x300.jpg 260w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_quote1-768x886.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_quote1-364x420.jpg 364w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_quote1-500x577.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_quote1-1000x1154.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_quote1-1280x1477.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/magazine\/sites\/13\/2024\/10\/fa24_network_closeup_quote1.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 887px) 100vw, 887px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<section class=\"cl-wrapper cl-quote-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"cl-quote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center quote-body-amplify\"><span id=\"quote-keaney\">\u201c<\/span>We help prevent diseases from crossing borders and potentially reaching the U.S. Working together is essential because we are a shared global community.<span id=\"quote-keaney\">\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center quote-cite\"><span style=\"color:#2277b3\">\u00ad\u2014Shade Olowookere \u201917<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>After graduating from 溏心vlog免费B站, Olowookere earned two master&#8217;s degrees from the University of Georgia, in health administration and public health. At the CDC, Olowookere has worked to support emergency responses to COVID-19, the 2021 Haiti earthquake, and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Her work has impressed upon her how closely connected human beings are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMany countries we work with have good public health systems,&#8221; says Olowookere, &#8220;but need technical support to build capacity. We help prevent diseases from crossing borders and potentially reaching the U.S. Working together is essential because we are a shared global community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Olowookere\u2019s emphasis on community is no surprise to her classmate, Danielle Amoako \u201917, who met Olowookere when both were members of Sankofa, a Christian ministry group on campus. \u201cShade cares deeply for the people around her,\u201d Amoako says. \u201cShe emanates the brightest of lights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently, the community center Olowookere\u2019s family supports lost electricity, a consequence of an unstable electrical grid. In this community, Olowookere says, an outage is more than an inconvenience. It\u2019s a threat to the community\u2019s well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEven though there are generators at the community center, they\u2019re often without consistent power for days,\u201d Olowookere says. The center hosts an after-school program and serves as a cultural hub for the community. One problem begets another. \u201cSo, the question is, what can we do longterm?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Olowookere, the fate of children a world away is also her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEven as we strive to improve things for ourselves, we can be thinking about how what we do improves things for the person behind or ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2014Marybeth Reilly-McGreen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"feature-caption sans-serif\">PHOTOS: SETH JACOBSON<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet a public health advisor whose everyday work problems are the world&#8217;s biggest problems: disease, war, famine, natural disasters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2024","architecture-close-up","architecture-network"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15117"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15259,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15117\/revisions\/15259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}