What does it take to lead with conviction in environments where your expertise is questioned, your identity is misunderstood, and your voice must compete to be heard?
In this inspiring conversation, Dr. Olusimbo "Simbo" Ige reflects on a remarkable journey from Nigeria to some of the most influential public health leadership roles in the United States. Through stories of global health, humanitarian service, pandemic response, and executive leadership, she shares how purpose, authenticity, and a commitment to serving others have shaped both her career and her character.
Together, we explore what true inclusion and equity look like, the hidden emotional cost of code-switching and constant performance, the importance of telling your own story, and why cultural intelligence is essential in today's interconnected world. Dr. Simbo also offers practical wisdom for leaders seeking to build organizations where every voice is heard, every contribution is valued, and diverse perspectives strengthen decision-making.
This conversation is more than an immigration story. It is a conversation about leadership, identity, resilience, and choosing contribution over recognition. Whether you are an executive, HR professional, people leader, or someone navigating life between cultures, you'll leave challenged to think differently about what it means to lead—and to serve.
Are you an Immigrant or Refugee interested in sharing your story? Let us know here.
Transcript: Accentuate! Podcast
Host: Rhonda Gardner
Guest: Olusimbo Ige, MD, MPH, MBA
This transcript was lightly edited for readability from the supplied text. Roles and experiences reflect the time of the interview.
From Ibadan to public health leadership
Rhonda: Good day, everyone. Welcome to the Accentuate! Podcast, where we amplify the voices of immigrants and refugees and explore how their experiences shape workplaces, communities, and leadership. I'm your host, Rhonda Gardner, an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago living in the United States. Today, I'm honored to welcome Dr. Olusimbo Ige. Dr. Simbo has dedicated decades to improving public health through leadership in both humanitarian and government organizations, serving communities with compassion, excellence, and a deep commitment to equity. In the past, I've also had the pleasure of working with Dr. Simbo for about five years.
Rhonda: Dr. Simbo, thank you so much for joining me today.
Dr. Simbo: Thank you, Rhonda. It's a pleasure to be here.
Rhonda: So to begin, would you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your personal background and where your journey began?
Dr. Simbo: Well, thank you. I am a public health physician by training. And my journey started in a town, a city called Ibadan in southwest Nigeria. I was drawn to medicine at a very early age, because I had lost very close members of the family to diseases. And there were no answers. Why did my sister die at childbirth, and my cousin die from sickle cell disease? So before I was 10, I was very aware of the need for medical intervention. So I chose medicine. And very quickly in that journey, I discovered that we were literally fishing babies out of the proverbial river.
Dr. Simbo: Many of the cases that I was seeing were really preventable. There were issues that if people had known earlier, if they had sought care earlier, if they had received their vaccines, maybe this would not have happened. So I was drawn into preventative medicine, and that was the specialty that I chose after spending two years in a children's hospital. And again, as I journeyed through that pathway, I got a chance to work with USAID as a management capacity building officer, responding to infectious diseases like malaria. And that's when I realized that it was not just the technical expertise for prevention.
Dr. Simbo: It was also the management and administration and the infrastructure that was necessary. And I did that working with ministries of health in sub-Saharan Africa to develop program management infrastructure. How do you develop a budget? How do you hire staff? How do you evaluate staff? How do you monitor if your program is working, etc? And that's what brought me to Global Ministries when I immigrated to the United States to join my family. At Global Ministries, I started in Imagine No Malaria. I quickly realized that if children survived malaria but died from diarrhea or other waterborne illnesses, we hadn’t gained anything. I became the inaugural global health director, just building the infrastructure, going from one disease to building an infrastructure.
Dr. Simbo: And that experience took me to 40 plus countries. And we saw the extent of all the needs in those contexts. That experience was very useful because that was what, you know, pivoted or leveraged the expertise that I had when the New York City Department of Health came calling because they wanted someone to lead community engagement. They wanted someone to help design health equity. In a city like New York, 8 million people, 800 languages, people from all over the world. But because I had done work in so many different countries, I understand the different nuances.
Dr. Simbo: And I say all of that. Again, the work that I did in New York during COVID, helping to reach so many ethnic minority groups, people in public housing, and getting vaccination coverage to like 98%, overtaking the rest of the city in those communities that people were saying they were hard to reach. And they were not hard to reach, but people just didn't understand how to engage with them and how to present information in a way that will resonate. And that's, again, what has helped me in Chicago. When I came to Chicago, life expectancy gap in Chicago was double the national average.
Dr. Simbo: And I was fascinated by that. Why are black people dying in Chicago at double the rates that they were dying in other cities? And we were like, violence prevention and it's from opioid overdoses, et cetera. And again, the same experiences, engaging with communities, talking with them, understanding what their fears were, understanding what the barriers were, was, again, what helped us within three years to bring down the gap by at least three years and get Chicago to the highest life expectancy ever recorded at 80 years. So all of that to say that the international experience, the global experience, the lived experience of witnessing members of own family, of navigating a confusing public health and health care infrastructure is what made me able to connect with other people and present information and resources to them in a way that they trust.
Dr. Simbo: So that's my journey, Rhonda. The expression of medicine has varied over time, from malaria to opioid overdose to violence prevention. But the passion and the mission has remained the same, which is bringing those who are in the margins to the center. That's always been my focus.
Rhonda: Excellent. Thank you so much for that. And that's very helpful to understand because most people don't have that experience close up, and you've kind of lived it, from global to local and that's really helpful.
Inclusion and equity in public health
Rhonda: So the word inclusion is used often, but it can mean different things to different people. From your perspective, what does inclusion look like in public health and what does equity look like in public health?
Dr. Simbo: Yes, I like to use an analogy that let's say somebody invites you to a meal. And so that is, I want more people than members of my family to sit at the table. Now, if they ask you what you would like to bring to the dinner, what side you would like to bring, or do you have any food allergies, et cetera, they are including you in the planning. You know, they're not just cooking, you know, potato salad. If you don't eat potato salad, you don't like it that way. They have invited you, but you're not able to participate in the meal.
Dr. Simbo: Because nobody asked for your perspective. So inclusion is more than being invited, it's being involved in that process. Now, we then say equity is not enough to be included. I say that the person's opinion counts. It's not just saying that I would like to bring this. It's that they say, oh, that's a good idea. And then you bring in and other people participate in the meal that you bring. If you bring a meal and nobody else wants to try what you have to offer, yes, you have been included, but that process is still not equitable.
Dr. Simbo: So that's how I see the trajectory of being invited, being able to contribute, But making that contribution matter is what I believe is true inclusion.
Rhonda: And if you were to identify like one step leaders can take to be both inclusive and equitable, what do you think is the main thing that they need to do?
Dr. Simbo: So, as humans, we all have blind spots. We all gravitate to things that are safe. Things that we're familiar with. Mhm. If you go into the room, you will look around for people who look like you, or who sound like you, or places that you know, we want to live in places where we feel comfortable, where we feel safe. That is human. But what I encourage people to do is move beyond your comfort zone. Be a little curious. Mhm. Learn that is unusual. Try something new, a new meal. Listen to new music.
Dr. Simbo: Read a different kind of book. Just broaden your perspective. I think there's not enough curiosity about other people. And that is what leads to very clear boundaries and stereotypes. And it is them and it is us. But when you're curious, when you want to learn, when you want to explore, it is easier to welcome other people's in and hear from them. How do you see these things? What is your experience? What do you feel about this idea? And that makes the world much richer. leaders more successful when they're doing that.
Rhonda: I agree. Okay, thank you for that.
Adapting without losing yourself
Rhonda: So moving to another country often means learning a new culture while holding on to your own identity. What helped you navigate that transition and what have you learned about adapting without losing who you are?
Dr. Simbo: I think my family, especially my mother, was very instrumental in giving me a sense of identity. in reinforcing that I grew up in a very patriarchal society and choosing medicine, people would say, keep quiet, the men are talking. Mom would tell me, you also have something to say. So that from a very beginning, I was told repeatedly, don't be afraid to share your opinion. When we immigrate and come into new contexts, the pressure to assimilate is strong. We want to learn the new culture. But we also don't want to lose our identity in that process.
Dr. Simbo: So there is a way to be curious and still be authentic to you yourself. It comes at a great price, because when you blend in, then nobody sees you. When you stand out, you draw attention to yourself, and sometimes it can be negative. there is there is a a level of satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from being authentic from being um and I I did actually did some research into moral injury and emotional labor when you have to code switch and when you have to pretend yeah for prolonged periods of time it is necessary in some context but I encourage people to find spaces where they can put their shields down, when feel safe, where at least have a community where you are able to do that.
Dr. Simbo: It helps. When someone constantly has to perform, it puts a mental burden on the individual. It's not always very sustainable for the long term.
Rhonda: I agree. Yeah, that is absolutely true because You do have to, you're always aware of your audience because you know you stand out. And so you're always on a stage whether you want to be or not. And so it just takes some balancing and it does exert energy to make sure that you strike the right balance. And sometimes you wonder if you really ever do. So that's true. Okay, thank you for that.
The emotional cost of leadership
Rhonda: You have spent much of your career serving both humanitarian organizations and public health leadership. What has motivated you to continue doing this type of work?
Dr. Simbo: Both sectors are very, very intense and very, very demanding. My motivation comes from a saying that if not me, then who? I have always had a strong desire for the system to be better, to be more equitable. But that always puts you in a position of telling somebody else what to do. So what does it look like when you roll up your sleeves and do the work? And I wanted to be part of the solution. I wanted to be not just staying on the outside and saying, it should be better, but actually being part of the change that I want to see.
Dr. Simbo: And what keeps me motivated is the stories that I have heard, the impact of the things that we do. I remember somebody, when I was in Global Ministries, there was a flood in Mozambique. And we were advocating for renovation of the buildings and not just distributing food or flood response kit. And someone said that, but the people sleep on the streets before the flood. Why do they need housing? And I was shocked to my bones. Like you think that there are some people in the world who do not need housing. That was a shock to me.
Dr. Simbo: And then I remember one time when, you know, someone said to me, there is an aviation ministry where there is ambulance services to help people. And the ambulance service has been around for decades, but none of the local people have ever been trained to be pilots. And the program was going to be shut down. And someone said, We have to shut down the program because you know, we cannot find any of these local people who can run the program and I said why not? And he said those people are only useful to run errands.
Dr. Simbo: They cannot fly planes And I share these examples because People often don't realize the potential and the capacity that is resident in other people That's what I mean by stereotypes. So it is It's important that the people of color, the immigrants who are in leadership positions. So people don't see us as just the people who run errands. That we can also be people who can influence strategy. We can also be people who can support teams. Mm hmm. And manage budgets and design programs that work. We are not just the errant people.
Dr. Simbo: So that's what motivates me. And I think that that representation matters, that people and in my journey have looked to people like Indira Nui, who was the CEO of Pepsi, who was an immigrant herself, had an accent and navigated a complex male-dominated world. I look at other women in leadership roles that have made it to inspire me. And I hope that my journey inspires other people so that they don't see themselves as just this or just that. If you can be anything that you want to be. So though it's been hard and challenging, I have stayed in the game for that reason so that people see that.
Dr. Simbo: um we can be all of these things.
Looking back on a career in public health
Rhonda: absolutely okay thank you for that so as you reflect on your career you've already accomplished so much already what are you most proud of and why do you think you've been successful in your field?
Dr. Simbo: I I am I am very people centered the work that I do is not about the title I I think it's important for there to be pay equity, but it's not about the pay. I tell people sometimes that the jobs that I do, I will do them even if I wasn't getting paid. Because for me, it is about the people. When I was a pediatrician, he's seen a mother come back and say, oh, remember your baby? And he's now in college. And everybody gave up on this child and told the child was going to die, and now look at the child.
Dr. Simbo: So my greatest success stories was, you know, in Global Ministries were the 1 million children, the Abundant Health Initiative. We wanted to reach 1 million children. We had never done anything like that before. And we made a commitment to every woman, every child to reach 1 million children. And by the time that, initiative was done. We had reached 1,073,162 children. I will never forget because we had photos of those children on our cubicles and in our offices. So those are the joys of the work. And then in New York, it was during COVID.
Dr. Simbo: When I was in New York, we were putting bodies in refrigerated trucks. Just hearing the sirens could bring on PTSD. And there was a day, 800 deaths in one single day.
Rhonda: Wow.
Dr. Simbo: And then when we started the vaccination campaign, I would go to churches myself. I will put people in my car. You take them to the vaccination. I went to churches. I went, you know, door to door. And then I look back three years later until the day when there was not one death. from COVID. And then there was a whole month without a death. And then there was a whole year with no death. And I went back to New York last year because they were celebrating the increase in life expectancy from COVID.
Dr. Simbo: And I left New York four years ago, but they invited me back. See where the city is now because of what we've done. And in Chicago, the same thing. I came to Chicago in 2023. We started, you know, the work and life expectancy. And then at the end of last year, looking back and say, now people can live up to 80 years. When before there were people living up to 62, how many more grandmothers, how many more grandfathers now get to see their children? You know, it is such a rewarding. jobs.
Dr. Simbo: So those will be some of my, you know, the work in COVID was very, very hard because we lost so many people, even in the department, people that we were working with together. And, and that is the power of human, uh, the human mind that, you know, people just kept working at it and working at it and making errors and refining it and getting it better and tweaking it until they got it right and they overcame the pandemic. So those are some of the highlights of my career, just saving lives. and making a difference, especially in communities that, you know, people just give up and say, oh yeah, you know, it happens, people die.
Dr. Simbo: Like people don't have to die though.
Rhonda: Um, obviously there have been challenges. You have a very difficult job. I mean, besides it being public health, you at the highest levels many times working. Um,
Navigating challenges as an immigrant professional
Rhonda: Have there been challenges you faced as an immigrant professional in the United States that shaped you as a leader or as a person?
Dr. Simbo: Every step of the way. I remember I was being given an award as a woman of influence in Chicago earlier in 2026. And I stood up on that stage and I said, I am a woman, I am black, I am an immigrant and I speak with an accent. That is not often a winning combination in the United States. So the journey has been hard for all of those reasons. My first leadership position as an executive director came with intense backlash from people who felt they had been overlooked, that felt like they were better, like why you and why not me?
Dr. Simbo: And we have been here for 20 years and we grew up here. Why would they give you that opportunity instead of one? So people felt you had taken something away from them. By being appointed into a leadership position. And that is a very real tension. In every leadership position that I have held, I have felt people have sent that to my face repeatedly. People have said, you're not really black. You know, you don't represent us. You're an immigrant. You're African. So when you say you're a black woman, we only count that.
Dr. Simbo: People have said to me, you're not really a real doctor because your degrees are not from the United States. You don't count. So It is a constant battle in self-trust and self-affirmation because listening to people and your opinion of you and what you're capable of and what your expertise is can very quickly lead to self-doubt. You have to continuously remind yourself of who you are. not look for external validation because often that is not always forthcoming. But I've also enjoyed remarkable support and encouragement from many mentors and many people who have navigated the same challenges.
Dr. Simbo: I've spoken to women who were the first. As the first black woman in Chicago, you can't imagine, it's novel. You don't know how to do it. You're not from here. That's not how it's done. That's not how we say it. And it's like that. But this is not the only way to do it. And there are other ways to do it. You know. And so people who have navigated that journey and their experiences have made it easier for me to carry that glow. Not that I will not experience those things, but that to know that it was not just targeted at me, that many people experience the same kind of backlash.
Dr. Simbo: But every once in a while, you need to step aside and recover. And when you are in leadership positions, it's lonely at the top. It's very hard for people to really appreciate the emotional burden that you carry. People feel like just because you're a leader, you have the best world and you have all the power and so you are by default the bad guy. So it is the encouragement that I give to people who aspire for leadership. It is not a bed of roses, but it is also very rewarding because you get to impact so many people, impact so many systems.
Dr. Simbo: But that comes at a cost and nothing worthwhile. Nothing worthwhile. It's easy. So and I And I do a lot of mentoring for a lot of people who are looking for leadership positions to just help them prepare mentally for how to navigate these things. You cannot really, you can't control how people think or feel or react to you. You can only control your reaction to it. So that is a bad way we need to work on how we control our reaction when we experience these things.
Rhonda: You said a lot there that is extremely valuable.
Staying grounded in your own value
Rhonda: I just want to unpack a little of it because, you know, for younger immigrants coming up for me, I mean, I'm still navigating that space. And I've been in this country for, it'll be 18 years next month, right? That sense of like knowing who you are and not knowing that there's no sort of strong external validation of you as a person, of your past experiences, what you have to offer, how do you remain secure in your identity and sense of, I do have something of worth and of value to offer an organization, this world, my community, how do you stay grounded and secure in that?
Dr. Simbo: So it is an intentional practice, you know, practicing gratitude. In my executive team meetings, cabinet meetings, we start with everybody just sharing one way or something that they are proud of or something that they wanted to do that they have done. I am very intentional at the end of each day to write down the things that I am grateful for. I am very intentional about writing down goals and the things that I have achieved so that I don't lose sight of how far I have come. Because there are days that are so bad that you feel like, what?
Dr. Simbo: I'm not even making any progress. Like, what am I even doing? And like, what am I doing here? And if you don't have those things to reach through and to reflect on, those days can very quickly become very dark. So you have to be intentional in documenting your wins, in telling your own story. I learned that the hard way, that people take credit for your work. People undermine, undervalue your contribution. People say, oh, it was my idea when you literally developed and ran everything. So you have to create pathways to tell your own stories.
Dr. Simbo: to document your work for posterity. Again, not just for self-aggrandizement, but so that the story is accurate. I learned that the hard way. Growing up in Africa, the stories we heard about colonization and about our origins were so skewed because somebody else was telling the story. And you look around and it's like, I don't understand. Why are we such terrible, horrible people? And then you realize that the stories are not balanced because they're strong from the perspective. So you have to tell your own stories, and you have to find avenues and pathways to document to what you have done and to reflect on it periodically so that nobody can take those things away from you.
Dr. Simbo: But don't expect that that validation is going to come externally.
Rhonda: Excellent. Thank you. So even after decades of leadership, growth never really stops, right?
Continuing to grow
Rhonda: So where do you see opportunities for your own continued professional or personal growth at this stage of your career?
Dr. Simbo: Um some of the things I I am in transition right now and taking some time to reflect on what is next and um I shared my pathway from staying individual patients to then going Upstream to prevention to then going to policy level um and I realize now that you know systems. Systems are so important. There are so many interconnected things. I realized that public health alone cannot solve health issues. It needs some way to work with the healthcare system and the housing system and the food system, the.
Rhonda: Apartment system and the activity.
Dr. Simbo: And I'm hoping that I go beyond or I can acquire skills beyond just the technical expertise to the business side of things and the economics of care and understanding decision making framework, why, how things are decided. So I'm spending some time learning in that space and hoping that my next adventure will be more in a systems role, preferably at a national level, so that there is a broader impact across systems and not just in one field.
Rhonda: I like that.
Cultural intelligence in the workplace
Rhonda: So in the past, we have had the opportunity to work together around cultural intelligence in the workplace. In today's workforce, do you believe cultural intelligence still matters and why?
Dr. Simbo: It matters to us.
Rhonda: Yes.
Dr. Simbo: It doesn't matter to some other people. What I have learned is that if it impacts me, then I care about it. Because it does not impact me, I nod and I keep going. So how to help draw people in? to invest learning time into things that may not directly impact them. Because what we do mostly is trying to show that this is a big deal and this is a problem and this is important. It is important to us. It is a problem to us. Yeah, I remember that when we're talking about health equity and like in the room, they're all the people of color in the room nodding.
Dr. Simbo: They know. We need to convince another people of color. They are the other people who don't have a lived experience, who don't understand what it feels like to be in the margin. How do we make those things real to people who have not lived it? So cultural competence, that is the dance that we are doing. When we worked together on this issue, it was in a global context where people were coming from different cultures. And there was a real tension there because some people were feeling marginalized and the different ways of talking and the different ways of presentation and all of that.
Dr. Simbo: But that resonated because it became a requirement. There was an institutional commitment to trying to find common ground. Without that kind of board mandate, or leadership directive. Many times, cultural intelligence or investment in equity or all of those trainings, they don't really land. People don't see, it's not my problem. So that's where I have focused as a leader, going beyond training and creating structures to make this institutionalized. If you have an interview, we want more than one type of group represented on that interview. So it's not about training people or anything.
Dr. Simbo: We want a more diverse team of people. And then you can see how scores diverge, depending on who is evaluating the person. And when you show that to people, they are surprised. It's like, well, you rated this person 1, and this person was rated 10 by a different evaluator. What do you think the difference is? And over time, helping people to really grapple with how these things are implicit. You don't see it. You don't recognize it. You don't even believe it sometimes. But still, you know, you start creating structures to make these things happen.
Dr. Simbo: So that is what I hope. There's a lot of national attack now on DEI initiatives and everybody's nervous about, should I see it? Should I not? What people don't realize is that When I lived in New York, there are people from all over the world there. If you don't learn to relate with them, it is always going to be a problem. I live in Chicago, 50, 60 million tourists every year, people from all over the world here. You cannot live in a bubble. It is impossible. You have to interact with people from other cultures.
Dr. Simbo: And it will be much easier if you try and build that capacity a little. um so that's sort of how I present it to people the world is so fun I have gone to so many countries and seen so many things and there's so much to learn and enjoy in the world if you stay in your bubble you're missing out.
Rhonda: Absolutely.
What employers should understand
Rhonda: What do you wish employers and leaders, and I think this is a good segue into this question, what do you wish employers and leaders better understood about immigrants and refugees in the workplace?
Dr. Simbo: I will really, really encourage them to look beyond, see the person, look beyond the degree, look beyond the accent, look beyond the approach to really explore their ideas and their contribution. If you go out of your way and ask people, what do you think about this? Just make that a habit. You know, I'm thinking about XYZ. What do you think? You will be amazed at the perspectives that people have. We don't even bother to ask. We assume that they will not know, and they will not be able to contribute. So that is what I encourage leaders to do.
Dr. Simbo: Just ask people what do they think? Do they have ideas and go beyond the degrees? I have had some of the most engaging interactions with people who are cleaners or receptionists. Before I left CDPH, one of our receptionists did a podcast. We're doing Mother's Day. When I come in each morning, I ask about her son. She has a little picture of her son. And she'll talk to me about her son and all of that. And when they said, oh, Mother's Day, and they said you wanted to feature me, I said, no, I think this person will be good.
Dr. Simbo: She has the amazing stories about our little boy. So if you want to talk about Mother's Day, I think she would be good. by having those small interactions and seeing beyond people's title, there is so much richness that you can enter the world.
Rhonda: absolutely.
Recognising what immigrants contribute
Rhonda: so before we close, is there anything we haven't discussed that you'd like to share with our audience?
Dr. Simbo: I think it's important for people, as immigrants, sometimes we feel like Being ignored, being marginalized is the tax that we pay for being immigrants. That because we came here, we are not as deserving. That we, well, it's not their fault. We came here. So maybe we don't deserve the same perks and we don't deserve the same things. And I want us to challenge that. Instead of what we deserve, instead, let us think of what can we do to make this place better. When people talk to me sometimes, I went to a student school and they said, oh, how do you see your journey?
Dr. Simbo: And I said, I thought that the United States needed help. So I came to help. Because, you know, when people leave here and go to other countries, they say they're expatriates or they're missionaries. They want to go and help. So I'm returning the favor. I am here to help them. Because I see people struggling with the same things that I have tackled in other countries. So I have something to contribute. I have something to help, not the other way around. Because that mind frame of they are helping us is something that is very deep-seated.
Dr. Simbo: We don't always see ourselves as we are helping this country become a better place. And when we switch that perspective, it's a different narrative because I came here to help you. I love what they say on the other side. So why not? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander?
Rhonda: absolutely. I love that. Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing your story, your wisdom, your heart for serving others, which is very obvious. Your journey is a reminder that leadership is shaped not only by expertise, but also by resilience, humility, and a commitment to improving the lives of others. Thank you for joining us on the Accentuate! Podcast. If today's conversation resonated with you, please share this episode and help us continue amplifying the voices of immigrants and refugees in the workplace. Until next time, thank you for listening.
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