Emmanuella Togun
Ella Togun is a Global health postgraduate student on the King’s Centre for Global Health’s M.Sc program.
She is an emerging global health young leader and passionate advocate for
education, gender equality and the eradication of poverty and preventable
diseases. Her extensive volunteering and participation in various health and
education causes in Nigeria kindled her interest to pursue graduate studies and
research in global health, in order to enhance her capacity to expertly address
the challenges of health systems, governance and policy questions in low- and
middle-income countries. In the course of graduate studies at King’s, Ella
beamed her attention on the transformative power of participatory action
research techniques, which culminated in an exciting photovoice study of
health-related challenges in rural Malawi.
As an avid believer in the reformative potential of education and having just
completed her undergraduate studies in Cell Biology and Genetics, Ella enlisted
for a year as a Biology teacher in an underserved community school in Northern
Nigeria. Her passion for teaching and the use of innovative pedagogical
techniques immediately yielded increased student participation and performance
which earned her commendations by staff and students.
Ella takes pride in being well rounded as her many layers do not stop her from
doing things she enjoys. She believes balance is key for mental health and
wellbeing. For leisure, she enjoys travel, cross-continental cooking, card and
board games, writing, hackathons, gym attempts, keeping up to date with
technology trends, painting, volunteering, hosting intimate events and time
with friends and family. She is an entrepreneur and currently runs a footwear
line, the 1403 brand. She has had the privilege to run a perfume line
and a makeup artistry brand, where she attracted a clientele that comprised top
celebrities and socialites.
She serves as the training officer for a student-led global health think tank,
POLYGEIA, where she has organized online and offline research training sessions
for over 75 student researchers in the London branch. She is also a member of a
POLYGEIA research team focused on studying emerging infectious diseases and
vaccine hesitancy. She also serves as a ONE Campaign youth ambassador, working
collaboratively with other youth ambassadors to lobby on high-level development
decisions, on a local and global scale.
Ella wants to live in a world where everyone, especially black women and other
marginalized groups have all they need to live a healthy and full life, free to
dream and achieve. She believes strongly in paying it forward, insisting
everyone no matter their level has something they can offer or teach someone
else. She continues to share her experiences, lessons and life hacks via social
media, personal and public blogs, and as a speaker and teen mentor.
She is excited to keep evolving, hoping to break glass ceilings and build a successful career in consulting and health systems, and live an adventure-filled life.
KCL African and Caribbean Society 