Folakemi T. Odedina

Folakemi Titilayo Odedina (born January 21, 1965) is a Nigerian-born scientist and professor of pharmacy and medicine at the University of Florida. She is the principal investigator for the Prostate Cancer Transatlantic Consortium (CaPTC), a clinical research group using genomic science and environmental etiology to explore disproportionate burden of prostate cancer among Black men funded by the NCI. She is a member of American Cancer Society's National Prostate Cancer Disparities Advisory Team.

Early years Odedina was born on January 21, 1965, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria to Ezekiel Shotayo Badejogbin and Grace Modupe Badejogbin. She spent her early childhood in Lagos and schooled at the Apostolic Church Primary School and Methodist Girls High School, Lagos.

Education Odedina obtained her Bachelor of Science in pharmacy at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife (formerly known as University of Ife) in 1986. She started a doctoral program in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Florida in 1990 and earned her PhD in 1994. Her thesis was titled "Implementation of Pharmaceutical Care in Community Practice: Development of a Theoretical Framework for Implementation".

Career After earning her PhD, Odenina joined West Virginia University as an assistant professor. Her scientific works focused on genetic, environmental determinants of prostate cancer disparity. She also research on understanding the predictor of health disparities among Black men and exploration of behavioural interventions to improve the issues. She has led over 30 research projects prostate cancer disparities. In 2006, she received the Fulbright Specialists Program to assess cancer data reporting system in Nigeria. She conducted the first national cancer research project on cancer data reporting system in Nigeria and was one of the leading authors of the Nigeria's first National Cancer Control Plan (NCCP).

Odedina has mentored over 300 African scientists. She is the Chair of the Research Committee for the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC). In 2017, she was awarded Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship to work on prostate cancer risk and the development of oncology clinical trial virtual platforms at the University of Cape Town.

In an interview with SciDev in 2020, Odedina said that she experienced gender discrimination, when a female professor told her that she would not be able to finish her graduate programme because of marriage and pregnancy during her graduate school.

She is the principal investigator of Prostate Cancer Transatlantic Consortium (CaPTC), a United States National Institute of Health/National Cancer Institute funded consortium that has over 50 institution members and research sites in Africa, Europe, North America and the Caribbean. 1997 Pharmacy Practice Research Award, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists 1997 Who's Who in Science and Engineering 4th Edition, Who's Who in Science and Engineering 2017 Williams Award for Innovation in Cancer Care, African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer 2017 Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (Nigeria), Institute of International Education 2018 Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (Alumni Award, South Africa), Institute of International Education 2020 Global Women in Research Spotlight, Civilian Research and Development Foundation 2023 AACR Distinguished Lectureship on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities, American Association for Cancer Research