HEAR Lab · University of Waterloo
About Dr. Oga-Omenka
Dr. Charity Oga-Omenka · HEAR Lab, University of Waterloo
Principal Investigator
Dr. Charity
Oga-Omenka
B.Pharm, MPH, PhD · Assistant Professor, School of Public Health Sciences
I am a global health researcher and Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo, where I lead the Health Equity and Access Research Lab (HEAR Lab).
My research asks a simple but urgent question: Why do people who need healthcare — especially TB care — not get it? And what would it take, actually, to change that? I work across Nigeria, Indonesia, India, and Canada to find answers that health systems can use.
My work has been recognized in the WHO TB Compendium (2nd edition, 2026) and published in The Lancet, BMJ Global Health, and PLOS Global Public Health.
How I got here
“I watched patients arrive so weak they could barely stand — and three months later, saw them return healthy, laughing, asking us to thank the people whose support made it possible. That is when I understood what this work is really for.”
— Dr. Charity Oga-Omenka
Before becoming a researcher, I worked as a pharmacist with a large NGO in Nigeria, supporting HIV and TB programmes at a time when antiretroviral treatment was transforming — and saving — lives across sub-Saharan Africa. Watching what access to care could do for people, and then watching what the absence of it did, is what sent me back to school.
I completed my MPH at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, then moved to Montréal — the month before starting my PhD, with my husband and our three daughters — to pursue doctoral studies at the École de santé publique de l’Université de Montréal, entirely in French. My PhD examined why people with drug-resistant TB in Nigeria couldn’t access nominally free care. The answer had everything to do with systems, power, and trust — not just geography or money.
That question has never left me. It is what drives the HEAR Lab’s work today: understanding the systems that keep people from care, and building the evidence to change them.
Education & Training
Postdoctoral Fellowship
McGill University
Impact of COVID-19 on private sector TB care in India, Indonesia & Nigeria
2021–2022
PhD in Public Health (Global Health)
Université de Montréal
Barriers to accessing free DR-TB services in Nigeria
2016–2021
Master of Public Health
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Facilitators and barriers to HIV care in Nigeria
2010–2013
Bachelor of Pharmacy
Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria
Foundation in Pharmaceutical Sciences
2000–2005
Current Roles & Recognition
● WHO TB Public-Private Mix Steering Committee member
● WHO TB Compendium 2nd edition — PJA tool recognized
● Co-Chair, Canadian Conference on Global Health 2026 (CCGH)
● WomenLift Health Leadership Journey alumna, 2023 North America Cohort