Dr. Adetola Salau is a social innovator and educator passionate about applying STEM skills to break the cycle of poverty in Africa. She desires to prepare African students for the future by innovating solutions that will propel their economic prosperity.

She has a B.Sc in Chemistry (Honors) (Fordham), an M.Sc in Engineering Management, and another M.Sc in Chemical Engineering; from Syracuse University. She has a Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

She partook of the 2018 Spring Cohort of the MIT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Bootcamp. She was part of a global advisory group with the Smithsonian Science Institute on STEM Education for Sustainable Development (STEM4SD.) She is a Moving Worlds Institute Fellow. She was also selected to be one of the inaugural fellows HP Cambridge Partnership for Education Technology for African educational leaders in July 2023.

Adetola is the author of ten books on STEM education, including ‘Re-engineering Minds for Innovative Thinking’ and ‘Future Readiness in Education, and is also a contributor to several journals and opinion eds.

She is also the recipient of several scholarships and awards, including the LAI Research Excellence Award from theLearning and Instruction Department, State University of New York, Buffalo. International Internship University’s Africa Award for Excellence (2022) GSE Dean’s Scholarship for Educational Diversity and Excellence, 2019 -2020; Ambassador of STEM Award (2017); African Quality Award – immense contribution to Human Capital Development (2017) to name a few.

She began her career as a public school teacher in New York. In 2016, she founded Carisma4U Educational Foundation as a way of advocating for STEM education with a focus on STEM education programs, to help young people embrace STEM subjects as critical tools for improving lives and driving development in low-income communities, especially girls.

Dr. Adetola was the Senior Special Assistant on Education to the Governor of Lagos State, Nigeria (2020 to 2023.) She partnered with stakeholders to solve challenges in the education , particularly by infusing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) into the academic curriculum, designing training programs for schools, and implementing, and evaluating STEM practices.

She aspires to continue to be a leading force in education revitalization in Nigeria and Africa, specifically in STEM.