Edima Ottoho
Growing up in a low-income neighborhood in a developing country, affected by social determinants of health, led me to pursue a public health academic career. An outlier who defied the odds, I feel responsible for creating pathways for others.
Doctoral Fellow Edima Ottoho works closely with CISWH’s executive director to enhance the center’s strategic initiatives. She provides guidance and tools to strengthen team procedures, streamline planning and implementation tracking, and improve performance measurement. Her work supports integration efforts to maximize the effectiveness, cohesion, and impact of CISWH’s labs, projects, and cores.
Edima is also an associate professor of practice (public health) at Simmons University and a PMP-certified project manager with 13+ years experience implementing public health initiatives across low- and middle-income countries and the United States. Her work spans global health leadership, HIV/AIDS, malaria, orphans and vulnerable children, digital health, tuberculosis, and health system strengthening. She specializes in program and policy development, planning and budgeting, implementation leadership, monitoring and evaluation, and institutional and workforce capacity strengthening. With experience across nonprofit, private, and government sectors, she has worked at various health system levels to drive impactful change.
Edima serves on the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Community Health and Prevention Policy Committee (2024–2025), shaping policy on broad-based health promotion and prevention initiatives. She is also a board member of Smile Train’s Young Leadership Circle, where she advocates and raises funds for children affected by cleft worldwide. Additionally, she co-developed health equity guidelines for shared health services in local health departments for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Edima has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Henrik L. Blum Excellence in Healthcare Planning and Public Health Spotlight Awards from the American Public Health Association and the 2023 40 Under 40 Public Health Catalyst Award from the Boston Congress of Public Health. She has also been awarded several prestigious fellowships, including the Elinor Ostrom and Frederick Bastiat Fellowships (Mercatus Center, George Mason University), the Equity and Inclusion Award (Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management), and the Design, Equity, Action, and Leadership Fellowship (West African Institute of Public Health). She has been a guest lecturer in numerous global health courses at Boston University, and served as an expert panelist at many event, including recent ones with the National Association of Health Services Executives and the Simmons University’s 2025 Ifill Forum’s Panel on Women’s Health. Her journal publications, editorials, and abstracts cut across various health topics and geographic settings, including reproductive health, COVID-19, digital health, behavioral economics, HIV, Nigeria, Sudan, India, and Bangladesh.
Edima holds Master of Business Administration from University of South Wales, UK, and a Master of Public Health Services Management from University of Calabar Nigeria. Her master’s thesis was an appraisal of sub-national malaria control programs in Nigeria to deliver on their elimination mandate. She is a candidate for the Doctor of Public Health in leadership, management, and policy at Boston University. Her thesis examines women’s leadership in global health, exploring various mentorship models and their influence on leadership development/career advancement outcomes for women in global health from low- and middle-income country backgrounds.