Even during her earliest days at Ohio State, Dr. Jacqueline Nwando Onyejekwe Olayiwola exhibited strong leadership skills. She participated in a variety of campus activities, including being elected Homecoming Queen, forming student organizations, and belonging to SPHINX, the prestigious senior honorary.

In a letter of support for her nomination, Mark Notesine, chief of staff at Ohio State's College of Medicine and associate vice president for health sciences, wrote: "Dr. Olayiwola could be described by any of the following: caring physician, medical executive, research scientist, author, and emerging leader. But if asked to choose the characteristics that best describe Dr. Olayiwola, it would be her incredible work ethic, caring and compassionate sense of altruism, and her selfless commitment to individual patients and the greater community."

In addition to earning a bachelor's degree in nutrition in 1997 and a doctor of medicine degree in 2001, both from Ohio State, Olayiwola completed a family medicine residency at the Columbia University Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital in 2004, and the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at Harvard Medical School in 2005, which included the completion of a master's degree in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Olayiwola is the chief medical officer and president of the medical staff at Community Health Center, with headquarters in Middletown, Conn. In this role, she serves as the medical leader for Connecticut's largest network of health centers, which includes clinical responsibility for physicians, nurse practitioners, diabetes educators, nutritionists, and other ancillary providers, as well as pioneering, developing, and implementing best practices and innovations in primary care.

Since 2002, she has also served as the chief executive officer and founder of GIRLTALK, a nonprofit corporation that educates minority adolescent females about sexual health, safe sex practices, and contraception. GIRLTALK stands for Girls In Real Life Tackling A Livid Killer: Minority Girls Talk Back to HIV/AIDS. To date, GIRLTALK has trained more than 300 girls in high-risk communities in New York and Ghana, West Africa.

Olayiwola has won numerous awards and honors during her career, including being named a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians in 2006 and receiving the Excellence in Medicine Leadership Award from the American Medical Association Foundation in 2005. She was also named one of America's Top Family Doctors by the Consumers Research Council of America and received the 2008 Emerging Leaders Award from the Society of Teachers and Family Medicine/Family Medicine Education Consortium.

Maame (Margaret) Dankwah-Quansah, who wrote the nomination letter, has known Olayiwola since their college days at Ohio State. She wrote, "I believe this award would complete the circle of Dr. Olayiwola's amazing achievements at Ohio State and her illustrious career since she left. She truly embodies and personifies Ohio State's ideals of excellence and, at a young age, has excelled in academic, clinical, teaching, community, and civic pursuits, all while holding Ohio State dear to her heart."