—— ABOUT
Hi, I’m Isioma. Consultant gynaecologist, speaker & adviser.
I help doctors step into consultant life, women understand their health, and organisations across health, industry, and academia make better decisions about women’s health & equity.
Dr Isioma Okolo, MbChB, MPH, MRCOG, DTMH
Making medicine honest, humane and easier to navigate
—— MY STORY
I am a Harvard graduate originally from Nigeria. I trained in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Boston, and my work has taken me across Africa, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East — in settings with very different resources, priorities and challenges.
Across those experiences, I kept noticing gaps that clinical knowledge alone could not explain.
Women whose concerns were dismissed and who struggled to understand their own bodies. Doctors who had worked hard to become excellent clinicians but were left to figure out leadership, professional relationships, and consultant life on their own. Health systems where the rules, incentives and power dynamics shaping people's experiences were rarely discussed openly.
These experiences shaped the questions I continue to ask: Whose perspective is missing? What are we taking for granted? What does the evidence tell us? And how do we turn what we know into something people can actually use?
My work now spans clinical practice, research, medical education, speaking, writing and strategic advisory. The settings differ, but I am interested in the same underlying challenge: how to make healthcare and the systems around it work better for the people they are meant to serve.
Three words guide everything I do
—— MY VALUES
01
Honest
Naming what is usually left unsaid, in clinic, in careers and in the systems around them.
02
Humane
Taking women seriously across the life course and supporting clinicians beyond technical excellence.
03
Navigable
Turning hidden rules into clear, evidence-based steps people can actually follow.
I WORK WITH CLIENTS INCLUDING
Corporations and employers Governments Hospitals FemTech & MedTech Pharma and Life sciences Academic institutions Charities Global health organisations
4 ways to work with me
—— HOW I CAN HELP
FOR ORGANISATIONS
Speaking
Keynotes, panels and workshops on women’s health, health equity and medical leadership, for audiences from boardrooms to parliaments.
FOR ORGANISATIONS
Advisory
Strategic, clinically informed advice on women’s health products, programmes, policy and equity..
FOR DOCTORS
The Next Step
My programme for senior trainees and new consultants on the hidden curriculum of consultant life: interviews and portfolios, early leadership, negotiation, and the identity shift after training.
FOR WOMEN
Women’s Health Education
Clinically grounded, human conversations from periods to menopause, through writing, talks and workshops, with a focus on women who are too often unheard.
Changing systems, not just conversations
—— SELECTED IMPACT
Women's health and community-led change
Through KWISA, I convened NAUWU (Nothing About Us Without Us), a community participatory initiative with NHS Lothian that centres Black women’s knowledge and lived experience of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood. Our report now informs Scotland’s national strategy on racialised inequalities for mothers and babies and the hospital’s quality improvement priorities, and led to workshops offering culturally safe maternal health education led by community experts.
I also support FGM/C survivors and lead community education on its harms, and have delivered women’s health education to over 3000 women in community and corporate settings
Global Health Policy & Advocacy
With the RCOG, I facilitated, monitored, and evaluated Essential Obstetric Skills training in Uganda, contributing to fewer maternal deaths from postpartum haemorrhage and sepsis, and developed local Expert Trainers who took over delivery to sustain the programme. I also delivered and evaluated RCOG training that equips doctors to challenge the medicalisation of FGM/C in their own communities.
I was a UN Women UK delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women (2021, 2022), organised Scotland’s first CSW NGO forum (2023), and provided technical advice to GSF and WHO on South-South collaboration to reduce cervical cancer in Africa.
Medical Education and Leadership
I founded The Next Step to close the gap between finishing training and thriving as a consultant; 100% of participants report greater confidence stepping into consultant roles.
On the RCOG Race Equality Taskforce, I led the evidence and recommendations on differential attainment that informed the College's coaching programme and e-learning resources.
I have mentored over 100 medical students and trainees, taught as RCOG leadership faculty and NHS educational supervisor, lectured at Harvard, Edinburgh and Oxford, and published over 20 peer-reviewed articles and four textbooks.
BOARDS & COMMUNITY Global Health Partnership KWISA AMMA Birth Companions Boston Congress of Public Health
—— CREDENTIALS
Training, posts & recognition
TRAINING
2023 CCT, UK Board Certification
2022 MPH, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
Paul Farmer Global Surgery Research Fellowship, Harvard Medical School
2021 Communication & Thought Leadership Fellowship, Boston Congress of Public Health
2018 MRCOG, Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists
2013 DTMH, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene
2012 DFSRH, Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Health, UK
2011 MBChB, University of Edinburgh, UK
CURRENT POST
Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Qatar
Faculty Lectureship, University of Oxford
Senior Honorary Clinical Lecturer, University of Edinburgh
CLINICAL FOCUS
Minimal-access surgery, gynaecological ultrasound, early pregnancy, high-risk pregnancy and birth, family planning, menopause and lifestyle medicine for women.
SELECTED AWARDS
Recognition for Specialist Clinical Leader, Black Healthcare Awards
100PLUS Scottish Black African Caribbean Role Models and Leaders, Heriot-Watt University
Most Trusted and Effective Negotiator, Harvard Kennedy School
Bernhard Baron Award, RCOG
Marcus Filshie Fellowship, RCOG
BEST Scholar Award, British Universities across North America
Outstanding and Overall Best Fellow, HPHR Journal
Travelling Fellowship, Medical Association of Nigerians Across Great Britain
—— WRITING & MEDIA
Where you’ll find my voice.
COLUMN
The Guardian NG Newspaper
A regular health column for readers across Nigeria and the diaspora.
BLOG AND PODCAST
Reflections on health, hope, community and social change.
Echi Di Ime
BROADCAST
BBC Radio Scotland
On maternal mortality inequities for Black women in the UK, and diversity in medical education.
Let’s work together.
Whether you are stepping into consultant life, looking for a speaker, or shaping a women’s health product or programme, I would love to hear