If Marian Orhierhor gets her way, she’ll help ensure the world can prevent some of the most debilitating diseases through vaccination. Marian is a qualitative health researcher from Nigeria, with an interest in health promotion, health policy, vaccines and knowledge translation.
She graduated from the Master of Public health program at UBC’s School of Population and Public health in 2021. Marian is now a research coordinator at the Vaccine Evaluation Centre of BC Children Hospital Research Institute, where she works on a range of qualitative research studies on digital health, health policy, health communication and promotion, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19.
Marian says her combined passion for knowledge and helping others translated to broadening her scope and skills in healthcare. And that was a main factor in the decision to move 10,667 km from home to earn a graduate degree in Public Health.
During her time at UBC, the Faculty of Medicine recognized Marian on International Women’s Day 2022 for her efforts towards gender equity. She also volunteered with the Acadia food bank during the pandemic to improve food security for UBC students and families. She was a Master of Public Health peer mentor, as well as the student and young professional UBC representative for the Canadian Association of Global Health. Outside work, Marian enjoys mentoring young Africans, networking, visiting new places with friends and taking pictures.
A UBC Mastercard Foundation Scholar, she recently collaborated as a co-researcher on the “Identities in Transition—From Africa to North America & Europe: Becoming Students,” a joint project with Scotland’s University of Edinburgh funded by the Mastercard Foundation.
Find out more about the Identities in Transition project.
Read other student-researcher profiles from the team that collaborated on the UBC-Scotland Identities in Transition project: recent UBC grad students Andrews Nartey and Abigail Okyere.
Learn about the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Research Project.