Aces of Trades: Ide Okojie brings a world view to Marion Public Health
Sometimes a dream is more than just a dream.
“I had an interesting upbringing,” noted Ide Okojie. “I was always at the center of a clash of cultures. I am the son of a Nigerian immigrant. I was shaped by father’s childhood stories selling goods in busy African markets, fashioning shoes by cutting sections of tire and lashing them around his feet, stories of intrigue from our royal legacy. My great-grandfather, King Ogbidi had over 90 concubines and wives.
“He moved to the states to pursue further education,” Okojie continued. “Education was the key to stability and prosperity. My father and his brothers/sisters are engineers, pharmacists, doctors. My father instilled that discipline and hunger for learning. My favorite books were the thesaurus and Encyclopedia Britannica. When my dad sent me to stay with my aunt over summers, I had more books than items of clothes! I was a learner!
“At the same time,” he added, “I had to function in the ‘real world’ — different food, a mix of cultures, students and teachers struggling to pronounce my name. It was a culture shock. Assimilation was an ongoing battle when the home life does not always match the outside world and vice versa. But the outside world rounded me out. I played soccer and basketball, cruised the neighborhood on our little bikes, and traded Pokémon cards. I was pretty normal, except my curfew was shorter and I couldn’t go to the football games unless I had all A’s.”
Events that gave shape to his life
Today, Okojie is director of community health with the Marion Public Health Department.
“I set the overall strategic agenda for our community health programs,” he explained. “Our big picture goal is to provide a snapshot of the state of health in our community, through the community health assessment. We then try to gather relevant partners to collectively address our highest priorities, whether it be environmental factors, health behaviors or mental health. We also have programs that promote healthy eating, physical activity and community coalitions. We operate from the neighborhood block to the board room!”
Okojie, 33, was born in New Jersey, spent some time in Colorado, then moved to a suburb of Cleveland. He graduated from Strongsville High School in 2007, then earned a degree in international studies from Miami University in Oxford. He’s now working on his master’s in public administration at The Ohio State University.
“I had two events that began to give shape to my life’s work,” he said. “When I was 9 years old, I had recurring dreams that I owned my own conference building. I invited engineers, scientists, artists, athletes, politicians, you name it. I would hold conferences with these leaders to try to solve the country’s problems. Very strange. Then in high school, I went to a student conference in international diplomacy in Washington, D.C. We toured embassies and met with CIA directors. My favorite part was the diplomacy games, where we were handed ‘control’ of a country and had to navigate through simulated crises. There were some things that really animated me, and this was one of them.”
Okojie said he “wandered a bit” to New York, San Francisco, Cincinnati, New Zealand, then back to Ohio. He started working with Marion Public Health in 2021.
Bringing community health improvement plan to life
“Working in public health can be very challenging,” assessed Jessica Woods, WIC director/public health nutritionist with Marion Public Health. “Ide is helping MPH bring our community health improvement plan to life. He has a great mind for strategic planning and getting the right people at the table. I always get excited when I get the opportunity to work with him because he brings positive energy to our work.”
“I’m grateful for where I am now,” Okojie responded, “and excited for the people I’ll encounter and things I get to do in the future. From the start I was so impressed by the multi-disciplinary nature of their work at Marion Public Health, from food inspections to immunization, to community building. A small team but doing mighty work. A lot of it involved equipping others to do the best work they can in their sphere of influence, and that was attractive to me. It reminded me of my dream!”
Marion Public Health Department is located at 181 S. Main St., No. 3964, Marion. For more information, log on marionpublichealth.org.
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs — whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at news@marionstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Ide Okojie brings a different perspective to Marion Public Health
