Meet our Bloggers: Flora Ukoli, MBBS, DPH, MPH

Dr. Flora Aroma Ukoli received her medical degree at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1975), a Master in Public Health degree from the University of Glasgow, Scotland (1980), a Master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh, PA, in 1998, and is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians. Dr Ukoli is a Professor of Community Medicine and joined the Department of Surgery at Meharry Medical College in July 2003.
She has extensive community health and research experience, and currently directs community-based prostate cancer education, screening and research programs. Her research focus is to identify dietary risk and protective factors of prostate cancer in African-Americans and Nigerians. This theme will expand to investigate gene-nutrient risk associations in populations of African ancestry.

She is a member of several organizations including the American Public Health Association, American Cancer Society, and Women Against Prostate Cancer. Dr Ukoli started an UsTOO Meharry and UsTOO Nigeria chapters, affiliates of UsTOO International, a prostate cancer support group with a mission to spread prostate cancer awareness by empowering individuals to take control of their own health, adopt health life-styles and utilize preventive health services including annual physicals and cancer screening. Her target population includes African-Americans, foreign-born blacks, and low-income medically underserved populations. Other areas of expertise include developing and implementing family planning, immunization, breast feeding, school health education, chronic disease (hypertension, diabetes) screening, river blindness, and HIV/AIDS programs.

Dr. Ukoli has presented plenary lectures at local health fairs, national and international conferences. She is the author of more than 60 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals. She supervises graduate thesis as faculty of the Meharry Graduate School, is an adjunct faculty of the department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, and is especially interested in investigating and eliminating global health disparities.  She has received research funding from the US Department of Defense, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the National Institute of Health.