Each year IU Indianapolis and the Graduate Mentoring Center honors a Trailblazer and Innovator Scholar to recognize their outstanding mentoring and invites this individual to present seminars to our faculty, students, staff, and administrators. This seminar series is supported by Indiana Graduate School at Indianapolis and is facilitated by the IU Indianapolis Graduate Mentoring Center.
2026 IU Indianapolis Trailblazers and Innovators Scholar
Kolawole S. Okuyemi, MD, MPH, is Professor & Chair, Department of Family Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, where he also holds the OneAmerica Professor of Preventive Health Medicine Endowed Chair and serves as Associate Dean for Population Health Research. Prior to coming to Indiana, he was Professor and Chair for the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine (DFPM) at the University of Utah Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine where he served as the George D. Gross, MD, and Esther M. Gross, MD, Presidential Endowed Chair in Family and Preventive Medicine. He received his medical degree from University of Ilorin, Nigeria, completed a family medicine residency and Master of Public Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, and a public health research fellowship at the Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Okuyemi’ s career for more than two decades is focused on research and training programs to improve health outcomes especially for preventable conditions in clinical and community settings using medical and tailored behavioral interventions as well as community-engaged research approaches. Dr Okuyemi has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications. His research has focused on addressing health disparities in preventable chronic diseases among clinical and community populations. He was also one of the Principal Investigators awarded the NIH Common Fund grant to establish the National Research Mentoring Network for enhancing the Biomedical Workforce (NRMN). NRMN is a nationwide consortium of over 30,000 biomedical professionals collaborating to provide enhanced networking and mentorship experiences in support of the career development of US-based trainees from all backgrounds in biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and social science research careers. His research has been continuously funded for more than 25 years by NIH (NCI, NHLBI, NIDA, NIMHD, NIGMS). Dr Okuyemi has a consistent commitment to mentorship and professional development and has mentored several trainees and faculty, many of whom have gone on to successful biomedical research careers.
Dr. Okuyemi is a board-certified family medicine physician scientist. In his leisure time, he enjoys playing soccer, exercise, volunteering in churches and various community organizations, and spending quality time with his family.
Dr. April P. Carson is the Director of the Jackson Heart Study and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Carson’s research centers broadly on determinants of health disparities in diabetes and cardiovascular disease. She has extensive experience with several large observational cohort studies and has published on a range of social, clinical, and lifestyle factors related to the occurrence of diabetes and its cardiovascular complications. A Georgia native, Dr. Carson completed her B.S. in Microbiology at the University of Georgia and her M.S.P.H. and Ph.D. in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before joining the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Fall 2021, Dr. Carson was an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Dean at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In addition to her leadership role with the Jackson Heart Study, Dr. Carson maintains an active research portfolio funded by the National Institutes of Health and is a professional member of the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association
Dr. Tera R. Jordan is the Assistant Provost for Faculty Development and an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) at Iowa State University. She provides leadership for institutional initiatives related to faculty hiring, orientation and onboarding, mentoring, data, and work-life integration. Her research program focuses on marriage and intimate relationships, community based participatory research, and qualitative and mixed methods. An award-winning scholar, the HDFS Department, the College of Human Sciences, and Iowa State have honored her dedication and commitment to teaching and mentoring, community engagement, and diversity enhancement and inclusive excellence. Prior to her faculty appointment in 2012, Dr. Jordan earned a dual-title Ph.D. in HDFS and Demography from The Pennsylvania State University in 2005 and worked at the University of Georgia from 2004 to 2012.
Dr. Kenneth Lai Hing received his BS degree in Chemistry from the City University of New York and his Ph.D. in Analytical/Physical Chemistry from the University of Georgia. After graduating from UGA he accepted a faculty position as Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at Oakwood then College, a HBCU, in Huntsville, Alabama. He progressed through the ranks to full Professor. Administrative positions include Chair of the Chemistry Department for over 20 years and in the 2016-17 school year was selected as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. In the Fall of 2021, he was awarded the latest of three NSF funded HBCU-UP, Implementation grants. Dr. Lai Hing is married to Jean, and they have one son Steven who is an Associate Professor of Chemistry in the Oakwood Department of Chemical and Biochemical Sciences. They are the proud grand parents of Drs. Steven and Ebony’s three children Steven II, age 6, Divya, 4 and Lylah, 1.