Bukola Salami
Bukola Salami is a full professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. She is also the scientific director for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute. She previously held the rank of full professor in the Faculty of Nursing and was director of the Intersections of Gender Signature Area in the Office of the Vice-President (Research and Innovation), both at the University of Alberta.
Salami’s research program focuses on the well-being of Black, immigrant and racialized people. She has been involved in over 90 funded studies, totalling over $230 million. She recently received a $2.5 million SSHRC Partnership Grant for the project Transforming the Lives of Black Children and Youth in Canada.
She founded and leads the African Child and Youth Migration Network, a network of 42 scholars from four continents. In 2020, she founded the Black Youth Mentorship and Leadership Program, the first university-based fully interdisciplinary mentorship program for Black youths in Western Canada. This program seeks to socially and economically empower Black high school youths to meaningfully contribute to Canadian society. Her work on Black youth mental health informed the creation of the first mental health clinic for Black Canadians in Western Canada (which was founded by Africa Centre and the Alberta Black Therapists Network). She has presented her work to policy makers (including the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health). And she has trained over 100 undergraduate and graduate students, including many (~10) who are now assistant or associate professors.
Salami is a board member of the Black Opportunity Fund and Canadian Nurses Association. She is a former board member of Africa Centre (the largest Black organization in Western Canada), the Alberta College of Social Workers, Black Health Alliance, Edmonton Local Immigration Partnership, National Association of Nigerian Nurses in North America, International Nursing Interest Group of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, and Project Esperance (a housing unit for women in Toronto). In addition to being an editor for the Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, she is an associate editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal and on the editorial boards of Nursing Inquiry, Nursing Philosophy and Qualitative Health Research. She is an advisory board member of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health, and on the Scientific Advisory Committee on Global Health to the Government of Canada.
Salami has received several awards for research excellence and community engagement: 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women; Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing Emerging Nurse Researcher of the Year Award; College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta Award of Nursing Excellence; Rosalind Smith Professional Award from the National Black Coalition of Canada—Edmonton Chapter; Avenue Edmonton Top 40 under 40; Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame; fellow of the Canadian Academy of Nursing; Killam Accelerator Research Award (a $225,000 value for research); Top 25 Canadian Immigrants; Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal; Health Research Foundation Diversity and Equity in Research Award; and fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.