Dr. Okeke received B.Pharm., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly University of Ife), Nigeria and post-doctoral training at the University of Maryland, USA and Uppsala Universitet, Sweden. She has held Fulbright, International Federation for Science, Branco Weiss (Society-in-Science), Institute for Advanced Studies (Berlin) and MRC African Research Leader fellowships as well as academic positions in Nigeria, the UK and the USA. Dr. Okeke is author/ co-author of several scientific articles and chapters as well as the books Divining Without Seeds: The case for strengthening laboratory medicine in Africa (Cornell Univ Press) and Genetics: Genes, Genomes and Evolution (Oxford Univ Press). A teacher scholar, she has mentored over a hundred research students, the majority of whom continue to work in science and health and will be 2023 recipient of the UK Microbiology Society’s Peter Wildy Award.