Bisola Ojikutu MD MPH is an infectious disease physician who has dedicated her career to overcoming racial and ethnic inequity experienced by people living with or at risk for HIV. Dr. Ojikutu is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Global and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Physician within the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also a faculty member within the Infectious Disease Divisions at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals. Her research explores the impact of structural factors and norms/beliefs (e.g. racism/discrimination, immigration, medical mistrust, homonegativity) on HIV transmission and use of biomedical HIV prevention.
Much of her work has focused on collaborative engagement of marginalized communities in research. To that end, she is the Director of the Community Engaged Research Program and the Associate Director of the Bio-Behavioral and Community Science Core within the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research. Dr. Ojikutu is co-editor of two comprehensive textbooks detailing the HIV epidemic with Black and Latinx communities, HIV in US Communities of Color (first and second editions 2009 and 2020) and has lectured widely on the topic. She is also a leader within the Massachusetts statewide Getting to Zero and Ending the HIV Epidemic Steering Committees. Internationally, Dr. Ojikutu has worked throughout sub Saharan Africa developing and evaluating models of care for people living with HIV. As a Senior Advisor at John Snow Research and Training Institute, she has led USAID-funded HIV service implementation projects focused on expansion of HIV treatment. At HMS, she is co-Principal Investigator of the Doris Duke International Clinical Research Fellowship for Medical Students and is the former Director of the Office of International Programs within the Division of AIDS at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Ojikutu graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, completed residency in Primary Care- Internal Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and Infectious Disease Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She received a Master of Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health and was a Commonwealth Fund/Mongan Fellow in Minority Health Policy at Harvard University. For the past 15 years Dr. Ojikutu has maintained an active clinical practice focusing on the treatment of HIV, primary care and general infectious diseases.
