Wendy Yewande Olayiwola is an expert nurse and seasoned midwife, with an impactful career in mentoring, maternal health, and global health advocate. She is currently the project manager for Better Births, a project with the objective of personalizing and achieving a safe environment for pregnant women and their families and ensuring continuity of care, and is also a Senior Midwifery Manager and a Professional Midwifery Advocate at a Large NHS Trust, London.
Additionally, in her time off, she runs a self-initiated mentorship program to provide training, guidance, and counseling for nurses and midwives across the globe. She is also the President of the Nigerian Nurses Charitable Association UK (NNCA UK), and a leader and participant in several other advocacy organizations and associations. For example, as a member of the Chief Nursing Officer Black and Minority Ethnic Strategic Advisory Group Department of Health, England, she advises and provides guidance on the issues facing patients and staff from minority ethnic groups.
“As a midwife, my work has contributed to the fight of the COVID-19 pandemic by providing safe working practice for nurses and midwives especially BAME staff, writing an Information leaflet for women and their partners regarding new changes in their local maternity units, and supporting midwives and other maternity staff (nurses, doctors, maternity care assistance) emotionally and mentally through these unprecedented times.” – Wendy Yewande Olayiwola, Msc
Wendy has received numerous accolades within the span of her impactful career. She is the winner of the NHS@70 Women Leaders Award 2018. In the same year, she won Top 100 Women for the LIFT EFFECT Star Award. In 2016, she won the BEFFTA Leadership Awards. She won the Community Excellence Award by OYO STATE INDIGENES UK and the Community Leadership Award by the Nigeria High Commission UK in 2014. She is recognized as the Nigerian Outstanding Nurse of the year 2011 – Yoruba Heritage Award UK.
Wendy has a postgraduate (MSc) degree in Public health from the University of East London after achieving her Bachelor of Arts with honors in Nursing and Allied Studies from Buckinghamshire Chiltern University UK. She also has a BSc (Hons.) in Midwifery City University London and obtained a merited diploma in management and leadership studies. She has written three articles for professional journals, including “Talking to men about FGM”, “Reducing the incidence of Stillbirths in Black women”, and “Educating Midwives about FGM”.
As a passionate advocate for equality among Black and minority ethnic groups, and over the course of her 20-year career, she has been a catalytic changemaker in the UK.