Naa Oyo A. Kwate

Naa Oyo A. Kwate is a Ghanaian immigrant who grew up in Chicago. She originally trained as a clinical psychologist in New York City, intending to work as a clinician in urban hospitals. Sidetracked by the startling burden of chronic illness among the patients of color she treated, Kwate shifted to academia, first as a professor at Columbia University and then at Rutgers, where together she spent more than twenty years leading research at the intersection of social science, public health, and the humanities.

In 2012 she was one of ten awardees for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s inaugural Young Leader Award, recognizing individuals for exceptional contributions to the nation’s health. Her studies were supported by over $2.7 million in federal and foundation funding, and fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, the Newberry Library, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris), and elsewhere.

Kwate’s work includes creative projects such as Is it Safe?, an artists’ book stocked at Printed Matter (NYC) and acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art Library. She is the author of White Burgers, Black Cash: Fast Food from Black Exclusion to Exploitation, winner of a 2024 James Beard Media Award, among several others. Her writing interrogates everyday African American life.

Learn more at Naa Oyo A. Kwate’s official website.