Njideka Okubadejo

Njideka is a professor of neurology and consultant neurologist at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL) and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Lagos State, Nigeria. She is an American Academy of Neurology Donald M. Palatucci Advocacy Leader (class of 2009), and the 2015 awardee of the Society of Neuroscientists in Africa (SONA)/ International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) Women in Neuroscience Award (West African Subregion). She is Chairperson of the Africa Section Steering Committee of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society and Neuroscience thematic area coordinator of the National Institutes of Health sponsored Building Research and Innovation in Nigeria’s Science (BRAINS) mentored research grant at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. Njideka is also Chairperson of her institution’s Health Research Ethics Committee. She pioneered the establishment of the premier LUTH Movement Disorders Clinic as a platform with a tripartite objective of service, training and research. Professor Okubadejo is the project lead and Principal Investigator (PI) in the national study on the genetics of Parkinson’s disease in Nigeria, and recipient, alongside her co-PIs at the University College London and the NIH, USA, of the first Michael J. Fox Foundation research grant supporting PD genetics research in Africa. Her main research interests are in neurodegenerative disorders, movement disorders and stroke. Her passion is to foster collaborations that build capacity for research and mentorship to ultimately improve quality of care and outcomes of Africans with neurological disorders.