A Journey Across Borders

Welcome to my page!

I am Soji Ojo, a psychiatry resident physician at Duke University Hospital, with training in epidemiology and a commitment to mental health advocacy across borders.

I left Nigeria for Kharkiv, Ukraine at sixteen to study medicine, the first in my family and in my neighborhood to leave the shores of Africa. What I learned in the years that followed is that healing asks for more than medicine alone can offer. A treatment plan can steady a body, but it cannot make a person feel understood, and I have come to believe that being understood is where healing begins.

Growing up between languages taught me this before I had the words for it. Today I speak English, Russian, Yoruba, Pidgin, and Hausa, with Spanish still in progress. I have found that when patients can name their fear in the language they first learned to fear in, something in the room changes, and the real work becomes possible.

My epidemiology training shapes how I practice psychiatry. I think about disease at the level of populations - who gets treated, who gets missed, and why - and about how a diagnosis will actually be lived in a patient’s home, family, and community. Stigma and the weight of cultural expectations keep too many people waiting until waiting is no longer possible.

Early in training I cared for patients whose mental illness had gone untreated for years not because help was unavailable, but because asking for it felt impossible. What opened the door was rarely a change in medication. It was recognition. Closing that distance, and advocating for those whose voices go unheard, is the work I have committed myself to.

I remain curious about how care can be shaped to fit a life rather than the other way around: helping a child build emotional resilience before the world tests it, supporting an adult carrying career, family, and expectation at once, and walking with an older adult through the losses that come later.

Beyond the Hospital

I founded Scholar Support Foundation, a nonprofit for students facing mental health stigma, financial hardship, and the absence of anyone to guide them. We have worked with students in Nigeria, Kenya, and the United States. Every young mind has the potential to shine when given the right opportunity, and we are honored to play a small part in those journeys.

Finding Balance

Psychiatry is my calling, but I have learned that balance and joy are not optional. When I am not in my white coat, you will likely find me:

• Participating in charity/advocacy events
• Behind a camera
• Spending time with family and friends
• Experimenting in the kitchen with a new recipe

These moments keep me grounded, and they make me better in the room with a patient.

Let’s Connect

Whether you are a student looking for guidance, a colleague interested in collaboration, or someone who simply cares about this work, I would like to hear from you. Please reach out through the contact form below.