Olagoke Akintola is a critical public health promotion scholar and practitioner with training in various social science disciplines: public health promotion, gender, business management, social/economic development, organizational development, medical anthropology, addictions & mental health, research ethics and research methods, from various universities across the globe. He is also a community & capacity development advocate/activist.

Olagoke joined the School of Public Health in 2021. Prior to this, he held appointments as Adjunct Professor at the School of Social Human and Social Development, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario, Canada (2014-2019), and Visiting Professor, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis (CHEPA), Department of Health Evidence and Impact (HEI), McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada (2013-2014) and Honorary Assistant Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa (2017- ).

Olagoke’s broad teaching and research interests are in critical global public health promotion. His teaching interests are in Ideology in Health Promotion, Community Processes for Health, Ethnography, Qualitative Research and Public Health Research Proposal Writing.

Olagoke’s broad research interests are in community processes for health, interrogating the intersections of power & health. exploring health services development, delivery & uptake in low- and middle-income countries. His current research are on primary, secondary and tertiary health services delivery and uptake among school-going children in marginalized communities in South Africa, health journalism in South Africa, the development of scholarship on community processes for public health promotion in low- and middle-income countries, interactions of pharmaceutical and other big conglomerate power and public health, community participation & processes in the health of school-age children, capacity building for public health in low and middle income countries and developing scholarship on conceptualising, operationalising and measuring community empowerment.

Olagoke is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Public Health as Associate Editor of Public Mental Health Specialty. He is also an Associate Editor of two  Afro-centric Journals: Journal of Community Systems for Health and Annals of Public Health. Additionally, he is a member of the Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA), the International AIDS Society and the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR), Economists for Full Employment and the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE), Nebraska, USA. 

Prior to this, Olagoke held a number of positions in international advisory groups, committees and initiatives including Associate Editor, BMC Public Health, Global Health Section (2018-2019), Director & Board Member, International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE), Nebraska, USA (2013-2015), Member, United Nations Expert Group on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights (2013) Member, Expert Group on the Global Financial Crisis and its Implications for Women convened by the United Nations (Office of the Special Assistant to the Secretary General of the United Nations on Gender (2010); Member & Rapporteur, UN Expert Group on the Equal Sharing of Responsibilities between Men and Women including in the context of HIV/AIDS; Appointed as Expert by the Secretary General of the United Nations (2009). Prof. Akintola is rated as a C scientist by the National Research Foundation of South Africa.