Bisola Ojikutu, MD, MPH

Dr. Bisola Ojikutu is a nationally recognized physician leader, health equity researcher, community advocate and expert in the prevention, care and treatment of infectious diseases. Dr. Ojikutu was appointed Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) in September 2021.

As Executive Director of the BPHC, the city’s health department, Dr. Ojikutu manages a budget of $162M and leads 1,200 employees to protect, preserve, and promote the health and well-being of all Boston residents, particularly the most vulnerable. Dr. Ojikutu is a key advisor to Boston’s Mayor on health issues and builds innovative partnerships across city departments and within Boston’s communities to positively impact the health of all city residents. Among other public health priorities, she is committed to addressing racism as a public health crisis and advancing health equity.

Dr. Ojikutu is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a faculty member within the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Ojikutu is a faculty member within the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She also holds appointments within the Infectious Disease Division at Massachusetts General Hospitals and is an adjunct faculty member at The Fenway Institute. She has led research and developed programs focused on increasing access to health care among marginalized populations funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HIV/AIDS Bureau). Most recently, Dr. Ojikutu served as Director of the Community Engaged Research Program and the Associate Director of the Bio-Behavioral and Community Science Core for the Harvard Center for AIDS Research. She is widely published in peer-reviewed journals including, the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Journal of Public Health, and is the coeditor of two comprehensive textbooks detailing strategies to address the ongoing HIV epidemic with Black and Latinx communities, HIV in US Communities of Color. In 2018, she was appointed co-Chair of the Getting to Zero Statewide Campaign Comprehensive Care Committee to reduce HIV infections in Massachusetts. In recognition of her efforts, she was named a Hero in Action by AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and a Community Hero by Action for Boston Community Development.

Dr. Ojikutu also has significant international experience. As a Senior Advisor at John Snow Inc, Dr. Ojikutu directed a $30 million project that provided program management, strategic planning and technical assistance to improve HIV care and treatment to 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. She is also the former Director of the Office of International Programs at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Ojikutu graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She completed internal medicine residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell and Infectious Disease Fellowship at Massachusetts General/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is a former Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Minority Health Policy and has a Master’s in Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. She is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases and is a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America.