IHME’s 2025 Roux Prize awarded to rural health equity advocate – recognized for advancing access to oral health care in Nigeria

IHME’s 2025 Roux Prize Awarded to Rural Health Equity Advocate – Recognized for Advancing Access to Oral Health Care in Nigeria 

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan will receive a $100,000 award for pioneering innovative, data-driven solutions to tackle oral health disparities in underserved communities. 

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan, Executive Director of the Dentalcare Foundation, rural dentist, and advocate for oral health advancement in Nigeria, has been named the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s (IHME) 2025 Roux Prize winner. The prize embodies the mission of the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), led by IHME, the most extensive and thorough scientific effort ever to quantify health levels and trends worldwide. 

Now in its 12th year, the Roux Prize recognizes individuals all over the globe who have leveraged evidence-based health data to improve population health. Established in 2013 by David and Barbara Roux, the prize showcases how visionary use of health evidence can drive meaningful change and is awarded by IHME at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine.  

In Nigeria, where less than 20% of the population has access to oral health care, dental health remains one of the most neglected areas of public health. Dr. Adeniyan has spent the last decade addressing this gap with creativity, compassion, and data. As Executive Director of the Dentalcare Foundation, she has led the deployment of mobile dental clinics and Nigeria’s first solar-powered tele-dental kiosk, delivering care to over 100,000 people in rural communities. Her work uses local health data, school records, and community feedback to inform, evaluate, and scale interventions that are both effective and culturally relevant. 

“Dr. Adeniyan’s commitment to bridging health equity gaps, particularly in areas often left out of the public health agenda, embodies the spirit of the Roux Prize,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, Director of IHME. “Her work shows the power of combining evidence-based, community-led innovations with local knowledge to drive meaningful change and expand access to dental care in Nigeria.” 

Dr. Adeniyan’s story began in the underserved neighborhoods of Lagos and has grown into a national movement for oral health equity. As founder of Smile Superheroes, a health edtech company, she is transforming dental health education for children by making complex concepts simple and fun. Her initiatives include Nigeria’s first oral health storybook for kids, The Girl Who Found Her Smile, now translated into six languages and distributed to over 60,000 children across Africa, the Philippines, and the U.S.  

“Receiving the Roux Prize is an affirmation of every underserved child who has waited in line for dental care, of every rural woman who believed she couldn’t lead, and of every community health worker who continues to serve despite the odds,” Dr. Adeniyan said. “This recognition will help expand our reach across the Global South and bring oral health into the broader public health conversation where it belongs.” 

Dr. Adeniyan has trained over 2,500 teachers and community health workers to promote oral health in their localities, helping to create a network of advocates that multiplies her impact across borders. Her opinion pieces in outlets like BMJ Global Health, Punch Nigeria, and Daily Trust further advocate for integrating oral health into Nigeria’s universal health coverage plans and regional health policy. 

Dr. Adeniyan is a Commonwealth Scholar, a Senior Fellow of the Aspen New Voices Fellowship, and a Global Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at the Atlantic Institute. She is also an alumna of the Young African Leaders Initiative RLC, West Africa, and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society in the United Kingdom. Through these platforms, she has championed the inclusion of oral health in public health policy and led conversations on health equity, women’s leadership, and community-driven innovation across Africa and beyond. 

As the Roux Prize winner, Dr. Adeniyan will receive US$100,000 to help expand her evidence-based oral health initiatives across underserved communities. The funds will support the scaling of her tele-dental kiosk model, translation and distribution of her oral health VR experience, and growth of Smile Superheroes’ culturally relevant educational tools. Dr. Adeniyan will be recognized at an award ceremony on October 14 in London.  

IHME will begin accepting nominations for the 2026 Roux Prize on November 1, 2025. Nominations are open to individuals from all countries and sectors, including government, civil society, and frontline care providers. 

For questions about the prize, contact info@rouxprize.org 

For media interviews, contact ihmemedia@uw.edu 

 

About the Roux Prize  

The Roux Prize is sponsored by IHME’s founding board member David Roux and his wife, Barbara, to reward innovation in the application of disease burden research. The prize recognizes the person who has used health evidence in bold ways to make people healthier – and to highlight just what’s possible when visionaries use health evidence to change lives.     

 

About IHME  

An independent population health research organization based at the University of Washington School of Medicine, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) works with collaborators around the world to develop timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence that illuminates the state of health everywhere. In making our research available and approachable, we aim to inform health policy and practice in pursuit of our vision: all people living long lives in full health.  

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