Maryam Funmilayo

Maryam Funmilayo, MPH, MA, CHW, is a public health professional whose areas of expertise range from community health, community-based participatory research (with immigrant and refugee populations), and qualitative research, to ethnography, food literacy, global health, health disparities, health education, health promotion, nutrition, and women's health (specifically breast cancer, fibroids, high blood pressure, and mental health). Likewise, Maryam is also an educator at heart with over 15 years of educational experience as a veteran homeschool mum and a substitute teacher in both private and public schools in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Irving, Texas. Currently, she serves as a virtual mentor to high school girls in Kumasi, Ghana, through her pilot project, Girls of Substance, which she founded in 2022 while in Ghana. Girls of Substance turned out to be a silver lining for Maryam when her intended Peace Corps Volunteer service in Ghana did not work out. 

Maryam recently completed her first year of service (2023-2024) as a Public Health AmeriCorps Community Health Worker (CHW) at Volunteers of America (VOA) in Dallas,Texas. There, she helped connect senior citizens with health resources and social services through community outreach, case management, care coordination, health education, cultural mediation, informal counseling, health assessments, and community advocacy. During her AmeriCorps service, she also worked remotely with Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, as a Scientific Literacy Graduate Research Fellow, where she did a mix of direct service (virtual focus groups and semi-structured interviews with HBCU-STEM students) and capacity building for their HBCU-STEM program. This educational experience at Morehouse College is very much aligned with her new role at Campus Compact. As the 24-25 Campus Compact Community Service Federal Work Study AmeriCorps VISTA Member, she will help develop and enhance structures and resources that support college access, student success, and career readiness among low-income college students, as well as supporting direct anti-poverty work.

Maryam has co-authored a peer-reviewed journal on E-Mentorship for Female Minorities in Public Health, and has also been a contributor in autoethnographies and nutrition magazines, and has served on an editorial team. 

Maryam earned a Master of Public Health degree (with a focus on Health Disparities) from Lamar University, a Master of Arts degree in Health Education and Promotion from East Carolina University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Nutrition (with a focus on Public Health Nutrition) from Kansas State University. She is embarking on pursuing her doctoral degree in Public Health in the fall of 2025 or 2026, God willing.

In her spare time, Maryam loves reading, freelance writing, journaling, traveling, volunteering, horseback riding, enjoying brisk walks before sunrise, and spending time with her husband and 4 young adults.