Sheila Ochugboju

Business mentor, Change Agent, Christian, Consultant, Idea generator, Parent, Project manager, Scientist, Single, Social entrepreneur

So, my meandering journey back to Africa started in a moment of clarity whilst working as a research scientist in Oxford, studying viruses for biopesticides. That was with support from a network of women scientists as The Daphne Jackson Trust Fellow at the Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology (IVEM), at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. Whilst on several missions across Africa to ostensively “empower and encourage” girls to pursue careers in science and technology. As it turned out, these young girls were actually teaching and encouraging me more than I had the capacity to give them. So I decided to return to the continent to contribute to the transformation that was already under way. In the interlude, I was training with the Department of Arts Media & Sports (DCMS) to become a Creative Agent, bridging the gap between Arts and Science to develop projects such as Impact DanceScience – funded by the Wellcome Trust, where epigenetics was expressed through dance (Bharatanatyam – South Asian Dance Form). In 2009, I finally found my way back To Africa, working for Think Tanks connecting researchers and policymakers in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria on science, technology and economic transformation. In Kenya, in partnership with another TED Fellow Joshua Wanyama, we formed Africa Knows, a stock photography, knowledge management, and media consultancy. We also co-curate TEDxNairobi, the flagship TEDx event in Africa. In 2015, I was adopted by the government of Kisumu, Kenya, when I was appointed by as the Ambassador for Transformative Science & Urban Resilience. In 2017, I was received the Wings World Quest Women of Discovery Award for Humanity.

Africa, Economic Empowerment, Science, Innovation, Creative Arts.

www.africaknows.com. Telling a different story about Africa using words and pictures and hard data.

Africa and international development, Biochemistry, Communciations/Media, Creative thinking, Economic Policy, Virology

I would like to tell you all of course, I shall just begin and stop where I end. It started in Arusha, TEDAfrica 2007, but actually it started at Starbucks Cafe in London, Jan 2007. One afternoon, when I had an idea for invention....frustrated by my lack of capacity to realise my dream on my own, I remained stewing.....The night before, I had been to a posh dinner, terribly sophisticated people, one the Director of a Dance company I was working with - Union Dance UK; another the Director of DNA laboratory - the creative nexis of School of Art and Graphic Design at Central St Martins, London. I was thinking about an MA in "Applied Imagination" or "Design Studies" to make up for my lack of creative talent. I spoke about this to the group. On my left was the Director of the MOMA in New York, they were amused. I was directed to www.ted.com. At Starbucks I discovered this glimmering incubus for ideas, then became crushed because "who can go to TED?"...I got to Arusha...now Long Beach..

Listening...though I have a lot to say. Believing in the unknown....though I seek the truth in so many things. Embracing the impossible......though I steer a tight path and navigate differences fluidly