Dr. Yewande Ogundeji (PhD) is a health economist, health systems specialist, and international development leader with about 15 years of experience advancing public health and economic development in Africa, Europe, and North America through program leadership, implementation, academic research, and teaching.

Dr. Ogundeji leads multi-country teams to design, implement, and evaluate health financing reforms, provider payment models, and quality improvement initiatives in low and high income countries. She also provides advisory, technical assistance, and implementation support to country governments on several initiatives including health systems research, immunization financing, nutrition, and private sector engagement.

She leads academic research across the domains of equitable access to care; improving patient and provider experience; advancing population health through precision public health; and value for money to support fiscal sustainability of health systems—in both local and international contexts.

She has expertise in mixed methods research, evidence synthesis, and knowledge management and learning, and she sits on several technical working groups and scientific committees at the sub-national, national, and international levels, including the WHO PMNCH Economics and Financing expert group. She has authored publications in peer reviewed journals and taught across thematic areas such as financial management, costing, fiscal space analysis, health accounts, allocative efficiency, cost effectiveness analysis, political economy, and health insurance. She developed the first ever typology to categorize performance-based financing schemes in healthcare and a checklist for contributory health insurance design in Nigeria.

Before Joining HSDF, she was a researcher at the York Health Economics Consortium, where her research focused on improving equity and quality of care through value-based purchasing, efficiency, and evidence-based health financing policies. Dr. Ogundeji received her master’s degree in public health and Ph.D. in Health Services Research from the University of York, in the United Kingdom. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Calgary, Canada.