Wenimo Okoya, EdD, MPH (she/her) is a healing-centered educator, program developer, and researcher who has spent her career advocating for and partnering with communities of color. She started her career as a middle school teacher in Newark, NJ and after seeing that both education and health disparities were affecting her students and their families, she decided that good teaching was not enough. This realization pushed her to pursue a Master of Public Health at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and a Doctor of Education in Health Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Prior to joining the NYU Metro Center team, Wenimo served as the Director of High School Program Implementation at the Jed Foundation. In this role, she supported schools in building their capacity to promote emotional health for students.
Wenimo also founded the Healing Schools Project--an organization that provides space and tools for educators to heal teachers so they can heal their students--as the 2021 fellow at the Blue Ridge Labs at the Robin Hood Foundation.
Wenimo has spoken at over a dozen health and education conferences including SXSW Edu and teaches at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and Teachers College, Columbia University. She is excited to bring her experience to Metro Center and learn from her colleagues as CSS deepens its equity work with schools and districts.