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BIOGRAPHY:  Folasade Oladele

Folasade Oladele

Folasade Oladele, Ed.D. joined the Buffalo Public Schools on October 3, 2005 as the Associate Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction. On March 1, 2007, the Superintendent, Dr. James A. Williams, appointed Dr. Oladele the new Chief Academic Officer (CAO) of the Buffalo Public Schools.  Prior to her work in Buffalo, she was a Professional Programs Manager for the Consortium of Reading Excellence, CORE, Inc. in Emeryville, California.  Dr. Oladele also served as literacy director and language arts coordinator for the Oakland Unified School District, Oakland, California, where she directed the English Language Arts program for grades K-12, and later, the implementation of the reading program and professional development for teachers and administrators in grades K-5. 

Dr. Oladele received an undergraduate degree in English and Music from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana; a Masters of Arts in Education with a certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) from Holy Names College, Oakland, California; and a Doctor of Education in International and Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California.  Among the awards she has received, Dr. Oladele was recognized by the Marcus Foster Institute as the “Most Outstanding Educator” in the Oakland Unified School District for her effectiveness as an instructional leader. While at the University of San Francisco, she was a Graduate Merit Scholar and a key contributor to the formation of the Center for Young Adult and Children’s Literature, as well as an organizer and presenter at the University’s “Reading the World Conference.”

Dr. Oladele was an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco and at the California State University, Hayward, California.  She has made numerous presentations and has published several articles, some of which have appeared in the Harvard Educational Review, Educational Leadership, The Journal of Intercultural Literacy and in the book, Portraits of Teachers in Multicultural Classrooms: A Critical Literacy Approach.  

Dr. Oladele has one daughter, Rachel L. Johnson, MD., Ph.D., who is a pediatrician and a scholar in health policy at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.