In a time when healthcare conversations are as global as the pandemics they aim to prevent, Gift Olalusi, a US-based Nigerian scholar, is reshaping how the world thinks about health and risk communication.
Gift O. Olalusi, a doctoral student at Wayne State University in Michigan, United States, has been named winner of the 2025 Westphal Outstanding Student Paper Award by the Iowa Communication Association (ICA), a prestigious accolade celebrating outstanding academic research in the field of communication studies.
Her award-winning paper, titled “Unheard Voices: The Hidden Influence of Non-American Accents on Patient Outcomes and Provider Perception in U.S. Healthcare,” dives deep into how linguistic bias in healthcare settings affects trust, diagnosis, and treatment, especially for individuals with non-American accents in the United States.
“Effective healthcare doesn’t start with a stethoscope; it starts with communication,” Gift explains. “If patients don’t feel heard, they don’t heal.”
But her work isn’t just earning praise in academic circles. Gift Olalusi was recently appointed Head of Operations at the African Centre for Media and Intercultural Dialogue (ACMID), a leadership role that puts her at the heart of pan-African efforts to promote culturally informed media narratives and global public health communication.
“This is more than research. It’s advocacy. It’s about bringing marginalised voices, whether in Africa or the diaspora, into rooms where decisions about their health and dignity are being made,” she says.
She worked under the tutelage of Professor Olunifesi Suraj, a renowned scholar in strategic communication, UNESCO Consultant on Media, Information, and Digital Literacy, and the Executive Director of ACMID, through which she further deepened her expertise. Together, they co-authored the paper “African Right to Identity as a Right to Development: A Media Right Agenda”, published in the Jos Journal of Media and Communication Studies, which was also accepted for presentation at the Joint Convening of the 2023 Social Practice of Human Rights Conference and the 6th International Conference on the Right to Development, underscoring her growing influence in shaping scholarly and policy conversations across Africa and beyond.
Born and raised in Nigeria, Gift Olalusi began her academic journey with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from the University of Lagos. Her passion for exploring effective communication strategies to improve healthcare led her to the University of Dayton for a master’s in communication and a certificate in health communication, and eventually to Wayne State University, where she now pursues her PhD in health, science & risk communication.
Her journey, marked by multiple PhD admissions in the U.S., reflects not just academic excellence but a clear commitment to solving real-world public health challenges through strategic, research-driven communication.
“Each acceptance letter felt like a vote of confidence, not just in me, but in the urgency of my work,” she shares.
Gift’s current research focuses on the intersection of health communication, stigma management, and intercultural communication. Specifically, her work examines the ways in which individuals who fall outside dominant societal norms, either through accent, disability, or cultural background, navigate these circumstances and how such experiences shape their health decisions.
“Many patients aren’t just medically underserved; they’re communicatively invisible,” she says. “That invisibility leads to delayed diagnoses, poor adherence to treatment, and preventable deaths.”
Through her PhD research, Gift aims to develop strategic, culturally responsive communication interventions that reduce provider bias, promote patient empathy, and improve better healthcare outcomes globally.
Her graduate studies at the University of Dayton, Ohio, gave her practical experience designing interventions for underserved communities in Dayton, Ohio, such as working alongside health engagement fellows to facilitate health engagement workshops in underserved neighbourhoods and co-developing training sessions for industry experts and healthcare providers on effective communication. She believes the lessons are directly translatable to Nigeria and other developing nations.
“In both places, the problems are the same: mistrust, stereotypes, and ineffective communication,” Gift explains. “But the solutions must be tailored. My work aims to localise global frameworks for better health outcomes across Africa and in the United States.
The post US-based Nigerian Scholar Gift Olalusi wins top US award for global health, cultural dialogue appeared first on Vanguard News.
