Ayodeji Iyanda, Ph.D.
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (May 30, 2023) – For Prairie View A&M University Assistant Professor of Geography Ayodeji Iyanda, teaching is about mentoring.
“Teaching is about sharing your knowledge,” Iyanda said. “Bringing real-life experience to the classroom is a great way to make students learn. Teaching is not just learning the concept but putting those concepts into perspective is actually the crux of teaching for me.”
Iyanda joined PVAMU in the fall of 2021. His expertise is using GIS and epidemiological analytical techniques to expose health disparities. Iyanda, who holds a Doctor of Philosophy in GIS, previously taught at Texas State University as a doctoral instructional assistant and lecturer.
“PVAMU is a home university to me,” Iyanda said. “I had opportunities to move to other universities outside Texas when I came here, but I chose to stay back in Texas. And now, seeing a lot of students that need a mentor has been life-changing for me.”
As a teacher, he wants to see his students’ lives change for the better and for greater things.
“My teaching goal also includes changing students’ perspectives about life and making them realize their lofty goals,” he said. “At the minimal level, graduating at the set time, finding their dream job, or going to grad school is what I wish for my students.”
In addition to his professorship, Iyanda is involved in research. His areas of interest include public health, disease mapping and modeling, environmental health, and spatial/social epidemiology, as well as urban studies, environmental and social justice, and social determinants of health.
Iyanda has co-authored several research articles on various topics, including “Underage tobacco sales violations and neighborhood crime in Philadelphia: Multiscale GIS-Based Analysis” and “Urban Greenness and Hypertension Among Ghanaian Adults.” Of 35 peer-reviewed articles in the past three years, some topics have covered mental health, COVID-19, the epidemiology of road traffic crashes, reproductive health, and chronic health conditions.
“As a trained geographer and urban planner, I have always loved to do research about my environment and discuss my findings with people,” he said. “I have worked professionally outside academia, but there were all indications that working at a university was my calling. Even when I finished my Ph.D., I did not submit any application to the industry; my target has always been the university.”
Iyanda knew he wanted to be a teacher because he enjoys helping students reach their epiphanies, “that point where they can connect the concepts learned in class to reality (practice),” that “ah-ha” moment.
While he doesn’t think there is a single teaching method or a one-size-fits-all model because students have different needs, he prides himself on utilizing what he calls “a co-learning hybridized teaching model,” in which students do not just sit and listen to lectures but also share with their peers as class leaders.
“From this process, they learn to do research and present their findings,” Iyanda said. “This teaching approach is probably unique to me at PVAMU. I believe we all learn through teaching others, which makes teachers forever learners.”
Iyanda recently received grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate the combined impact of Spatial Social Networks and Environmental Exposure on Minority Youth’s Mental Health in the U.S. He will be serving as the principal investigator and project director, working with other co-PIs to complete the two-year project.
Above all, Iyanda is committed to the calling of teaching. He believes the purpose of a teacher is more than teaching their respective subject. “We are guide rails for these students,” Iyanda said. “Most students come to college with no clear intention of who they want to be. Our encounter with them may help them discover their purpose in life.”
By Christine Won
-PVAMU-