Ohemaa Poku

Dr. Ohemaa Poku is a T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies. Dr. Poku also serves as the Director of Global Practica and Summer Internships for the Columbia Global Mental Health Programs.

Ohemaa graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2013 with Bachelor’s in History and International Development. Prior to pursuing graduate training, Dr. Poku worked with the Columbia Global Mental Health Programs holding various positions, the US Fund for UNICEF, and with CBOs and NGOs in Ghana.

Dr. Poku went on to get an MPH in Global Health and Research Methods from Boston University. She then completed her PhD at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where she was a NIMH T32 Global Mental Health Predoctoral Fellow. Her research interests include the cross-cultural interpretations of illness and how stigma impacts access to psychosocial care for individuals living with HIV, particularly for Africans and the African diaspora. She is particularly interested in utilizing community-based participatory research methods and a variety of qualitative methods to culturally and contextually tailor HIV and mental health care for adolescents and young adults.