About ARETE

Dr Folake Abiodun Abiola, MHM, PhD, is a public health leader and field epidemiologist whose career spans more than fourteen years across outbreak response, laboratory science, and large-scale immunisation evaluation in West, Central, and Southern Africa. Trained as a Medical Laboratory Scientist (BMLS) and holding a Master's in Public Health Management and a doctorate in Public Health Administration, she pairs frontline laboratory credibility with the strategic and managerial skill to run complex, multi-country programmes.

Most recently, she led the **Gavi Demand-Side Incentives (DSI) evaluation portfolio** — a body of work worth **over USD 400,000 in grants** — delivered in close collaboration with **CHEDCOM** from 2024 through October 2026. The programme reached across two African regions: **Lesotho in Southern Africa, and the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon in Central Africa** (alongside Nigeria). As Lead Epidemiologist, Technical Team Lead, and Principal Investigator, she owned the full arc of the work — study design, field-team coordination, immunisation-coverage and zero-dose analysis, data-quality assurance, stakeholder engagement, and reporting to donors and governments. Under her leadership the consortium established evaluation frameworks in all target countries, achieved 97% data integrity through double-entry verification, and produced policy briefs and manuscripts to translate findings into action.

What makes her profile distinctive is the breadth beneath the headline. She brings direct **viral haemorrhagic fever experience** from years of Lassa fever surveillance, diagnosis, and epidemic preparedness in Benue State — one of Nigeria's highest-burden states — covering case investigation, safe specimen handling, laboratory biosafety, and workforce training. She coordinated roughly two years of continuous **COVID-19 response** and national sero-epidemiological survey operations, and contributed to the landmark **NAIIS** survey that revised Nigeria's national HIV prevalence estimate. Her technical reach extends to a voluntary assignment as a **Global Expert Elicitor for the World Health Organization**, working with Delft University of Technology on the global burden of zoonotic and foodborne disease.

She is also a genuine **multilingual operator** — fluent in English, proficient in French, Swahili, and a native Yoruba speaker — which allows her to engage communities directly in eastern DRC and francophone Central Africa, not through intermediaries. An author of more than ten peer-reviewed publications with further manuscripts in press, a PMP-certified programme manager, and a leader comfortable in remote, austere, and high-pressure field environments, Dr Abiola combines scientific rigour, operational discipline, and cross-cultural fluency in a way that is rare in the field.