Adaeze Odili-Oreh, a consultant family physician, country director of planning, research and statistics for the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS), has been nominated for a position in the cabinet of Governor Siminalaye Fubura of Rivers State. Her confirmation by the State House of Assembly is already a forgone conclusion. She is most likely the next Commissioner for Health in the state.
Adaeze is one of the daughters of Peter Odili, a former governor of the state, and Retired Justice Mary Odili. She is deserving of the position, no doubt, having had over 19 years’ experience in the private and public healthcare system. She is not only a member of the Governing Council of Pamo University of Medical Sciences, Nigeria’s first private university of medical sciences, but also a Senior Health Policy Adviser with the Department of Hospital Services in the Federal Ministry of Health.
Adaeze is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Royal Society of Public Health. She is also a member of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood Global Strategy Advisory Group.
A Hodgkin Lymphoma survivor, she won a Best Poster Prize at the International Society of Blood Transfusion during the 2021 Congress in Amsterdam for research which she led and coordinated on blood services in 34 tertiary hospitals in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also, she won the Best Poster Prize in the blood donation category at the 2021 British Blood Transfusion Society conference for research she also led and coordinated on the impact of COVID-19 on the Nigerian National Blood Service.
A graduate of the University of Nigeria, Adaeze holds a Master of Science (MSc) degrees in International Health Management from Imperial College and Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; in addition to Leadership, Management and Public Policy certifications from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, University of Oxford Saïd Business School, Harvard Chan School of Public Health, University of Bath, and the University of Washington.
