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Females with the Power to Change the World - Dr. Bukola Salami
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Females with the Power to change the world
Dr. Bukola Salami
Females with the Power to Change the World: Spotlight on Dr. Bukola SalamiF To many of us, she needs no introduction. She is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta. She joined the Faculty in January 2014 as an Assistant Professor. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Windsor, her Master of Nursing from the University of Toronto, and her PhD from the University of Toronto. Her doctoral research was on the migration of Philippine‑educated nurses to Ontario through the Live‑in Caregiver Pro‑ gram. She completed the Ontario Training Centre in Health Service and Policy Research Collaborative Program, the International Nursing PhD Program, and the Critical Qualita‑ tive Health Research Certificate Program. Prior to her academic career, she was pediatric oncology nurse and subsequently an interprofessional educator at the New Immigrant Support Network of the Hospital for Sick
Children in Toronto.
Her research has led to several positive policy and program initiatives including the establishment of a Black mental health clinic by Africa Centre. She has provided consultations to local, provincial, and national policy makers to improve outcomes for immigrants and racialized communities. Dr. Salami founded and led the Afri‑ can Child and Youth Migration Network of 30 scholars from four continents focused on improving the well‑be‑ ing of African children and youths globally. In 2020, she founded the Black Youth Mentorship and Leadership
Program at the University of Alberta. This first University‑based interdisciplinary mentorship program for Black youths in Western Canada seeks to socially and economically empower Black youths to contribute meaningfully to the Canadian society. She is a community‑engaged researcher. She is involved with and has volunteered for
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several community organizations.
Dr. Salami teaches courses on immi‑ grant health, health policy, communi‑ ty health, global health and program planning and evaluation. I have a solid track record of training students. She has trained over 40 students as grad‑ uate students and research assistants, many of whom have received awards, including the Canadian Vanier Award and the International Development Research Centre Doctoral Award.
She has received several awards for research excellence and community engagement: 100 Accomplished Black Women in Canada; Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nurs‑ ing Emerging Nurse Researcher of the Year Award; College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CAR‑ NA) Award for Nursing Excellence; and Alberta Avenue Edmonton Top 40 un‑ der 40. In 2020, she received the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, one of the highest international research awards in nursing.
LCCMedia had the opportunity to sit with Dr. Salami recently to discuss Black youths and her work around mi‑ gration and health.Her flagship pro‑ gram, The Black Youth Mentorship and Leadership Program is a unique, made in Alberta contribution to socially and economically empower Black youths in grades 10 and 11, to contribute mean‑ ingfully to Canadian Society. The goal of the program is to improve economic outcomes, community belonging and leadership skills, as well as foster a pos‑ itive cultural identity for Black youth, the mentees. The primary objectives of the program are to: increase lead‑ ership of Black youth, increase post secondary entry and completion rate for Black youth, foster community be‑ longing for Black Youth, create a pos‑ itive cultural identitiy for Black youth and increase the ability of Black youth to tackle issues of racism and discrim‑ ination. This program was funded by the Edmonton Community Foundation in 2021.
Some of the inequities are the staggering rates of high school dropouts among Black youths, Black youths also experience racism in all sectors including in the school system and in the justice system
You are a workaholic. How do you combine work, academia, and family?
I believe one of the things that has helped me is, I really worked hard before I had kids. And because of that, I had already developed myself in so many other ways. A lot of things I do now take less time.
Your primary area of research is migration and health? Why do you feel so passionate about these areas?
So, my passion for migration and health is because I am an immigrant myself. I am connected to this area, because of my personal experiences. I
might tell you to study the equalities that I see around me, or the inequities that I have experienced, and many of those inequities are based on my personality as a Black woman and an immigrant woman in Canada.
Why are you vested in Black youth?
I think I am vested because studying Black youth allows me to go back around 20 years’ time and try to correct the wrongs and to address the inequities that I experienced about 20 years ago. We need to address some of the needs of the youth in the Black community.
What are some of these differences compared to 20 years ago? Are they still in existence?
Some of the inequities are the staggering rates of high school dropouts among Black youths, Black youths also experience racism in all sectors includtributes negatively to their educational outcome.
What does it feel like to be recognised by the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame?
First, it really sheds light on the fact
ing in the school system and in the jus- Cthat I am doing great work. And that in Ethiopia. We are also collecting data tice system. And health inequalities for Black families. Black youths experience these and they continue to experience.
What is the Black youth mentorship and leadership program?
The Black mentorship and leadership program seeks to empower Black kids to contribute meaningfully to society. The program has been running now. It is going to be the second year we are going to operate this year. In 2020, there were 35 Black youths in the program, and they were able to develop their leadership skills, educational skills, and commitment to education, the program strengthened their identity as Black youths in Canada.
Can you describe the results? Is there a plan to run the program nationally?
We are trying to run the program nationally. If I get the grant, that will allow us to deliver the program over the next 10 years. Some of the results have been incredibly positive, including: the development and strengthening of community belonging amongst Black youths, strengthening leadership skills among Black youths, contributing to their commitment to educational outcomes and empowering them. These address some of the systemic issues that we face within society. I am one of the leading researchers across the globe in the area that I am studying and it is a distinguished honour to be recognized as one of the strong Black researchers out there.
Do you find that there is a link between educational achievement and employment outcomes for African children migrants?
Yes, generally there is a link between educational achievement and employment outcomes for everyone. I think for African migrant children migrants, one of the challenges they face is the racism that they face in the educational system and society, that really con-
In 2018, you created the African child and Youth Migration network which now includes 32 researchers across academic disciplines. Can you describe how this network has shed light on youth victims of human trafficking and improving the well-being of the African child?
The network in the past has completed a scoping review of all literature available across the globe on African migrant children so we were able to review around 186 articles, and we have published work related to African child migrants. We have also had a graduate workshop for graduate students to learn about, how to work with African migrants, and how to do research with African migrants. We are currently in the process of collecting data in Canada, and we just finished collecting data I think for African children migrants, one of the challenges they face is the racism that they face in the educational system and society, that really contributes negatively to their educational outcome. in Ghana. The data in Ghana will focus on trafficking, but we are still in the process of collecting the data, so I will not be able to say much about what is in the data about that. One of the beauties about an international network is the ability to shed light on the global perspective in terms of African migrant children, and that is what we are trying to do and hopefully in the future we will also be able to do some comparative work, to look at the lives of African children in several countries of the world.
