Latifat Okara is an impact-driven global public health practitioner in Washington, DC, and the founder of NomNom Babies Company with a decade of experience in program management, international development, and health systems strengthening. Latifat serves as health nutrition and population global practice consultant at the World Bank, where she provides direct technical support, including evidence-based, global best practice policy advice, to policy makers and senior country officials of the Ministry for Health, and associated Ministries, on primary health care improvement strategies, non-communicable disease management, and innovative health financing solutions to improve nutrition service coverage and quality service delivery.
She previously served as field operations manager in the Academic Public Health Volunteer Corps (APHVC) in Massachusetts, connecting public health students and professionals with local health departments throughout the Commonwealth. Before APHVC, Latifat worked at Chevron Corporation for seven years, implementing Operational Excellence Management Systems (OEMS) to help build the operational excellence culture throughout the workforce and improve Chevron’s health, environment, and safety performance.
At the World Bank, Okara provides technical inputs toward the World Bank nutrition portfolio and the primary health care performance initiative, a global initiative engaged in over 30 countries to improve the performance of primary health care systems through country assessment and global engagement. She has worked on primary health care assessments for countries in Africa, South Asia, and the pacific islands.
As founder of NomNom Babies, an nutrition products and services company, Okara brings nutritional education and healthful recipes for weaning babies to over 500 mothers throughout Nigeria and elsewhere, with a mission to use nutrition to reduce childhood illnesses.
Latifat voluntarily organizes nutrition awareness outreach and complementary feeding sessions in primary health care centers in Nigeria, where she distributes free nutrient-dense baby food blends for underserved families. Latifat is a member of the American Society of Nutrition and holds a BSc. in microbiology from Benson Idahosa University and a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University. She is currently a Doctor of Public Health candidate at Loma Linda University, California, where she majors in Health Policy and Leadership.