
Departmental Affiliations
David Olawuyi Fakunle, PhD '18, utilizes creative expressions such as storytelling to strengthen humanity in public health through research, practice, education, communication and advocacy.
Research Interests
Storytelling; qualitative research; community-driven public health; contextual analysis; trauma healing; social justice; liberatory practices; arts and culture; systems of oppression; health disparities; epistemic justice; social-emotional health; mental health; policy; advocacy; activism; ecological systems theory; Maslow鈥檚 hierarchy of needs
Additional Links
Experiences & Accomplishments
David Olawuyi Fakunle, Ph.D. is a 鈥渕ercenary for change,鈥 employing the necessary skills and occupying the necessary spaces to help strengthen everyone divested from their truest self, particularly those who identify as Black, Indigenous and/or a Person of Color. David serves as Assistant Professor of Public and Allied Health at the Morgan State University School of Community Health & Policy, Associate Faculty in Mental Health at the Johns 乌鸦传媒, and formerly as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine. David鈥檚 interests include stressors within the built environment, manifestations of systemic oppression, and the utilization of arts and culture to cultivate holistic health through humanity, justice, equity and ultimately, liberation.
Additionally, David has applied artistic and cultural practices such as Black storytelling, African drumming, singing and theater in the proclamation of truth for over 25 years, collaborating primarily with organizations in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. region. Among many affiliations, David is co-founder and CEO of DiscoverME/RecoverME, an organization that utilizes the African oral tradition to empower use of storytelling for healing and growth, previously served as Executive Director of WombWork Productions, a Baltimore-based social change performing arts company, currently serves as Director of the T.E.A.C.H. (Transforming Equity through Arts, Culture & Health) Department at The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum, and serves as Chair of the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the first state-level commission in the U.S. dedicated to chronicling and bringing justice to racial terror lynchings.
Honors & Awards
Runner-Up 鈥 John Nelson Chappel Best Curricula, Quality Improvement and Program Abstract Award, Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance Use and Addiction (2024)
Honoree 鈥 Excellence in Teaching (AY 24-25 First Term), Johns 乌鸦传媒
Honoree 鈥 The Baltimore Sun鈥檚 鈥25 Black Marylanders to Watch for 2023鈥 (2023)
Honoree 鈥 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts鈥 鈥淵BCA 100鈥 (2020)
Select Publications
Select Publications (Newest First)
Fakunle DO, Herrera Nimmagadda N, Feldman D, Chanmugam A. The importance of storytelling to the individual, the community, and its implications for public mental health. In Schupbach J, Amirtahmasebi R, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Urban Cultural Planning. Routledge; 2024: 44-54.
Atnafou R, Sneh S, Fakunle D, Kanarek N, Keno L, Ayalew F. Applying narrative theory to raise community awareness and support to promote healthy behaviors and cancer screening in Baltimore. Am J Gastroenterol. 2024 Oct; 119(10S):p S279-S281. doi: 10.14309/01.ajg.0001030940.25071.2b
Addie YO, Fakunle DO, Pufahl J. Narrative Rx: Storytelling鈥檚 healing capacities in public health. In Mermikides A, Bouchard G, eds. The Routledge Companion to Performance and Medicine. London: Routledge; 2024: 261-271.
Han H, Byiringiro S, Lacanieta C鈥Fakunle D. Storytelling training to promote stakeholder engagement in research dissemination. J Clin Transl Sci. 2021 Aug 9;6(1):e5. doi: 10.1017/cts.2021.830. PMID: 35211332; PMCID: PMC8826007.
Fakunle DO, Thomas D, Gonzales KAM, Vidot DC, Johnson LP. What Anansi did for us: Storytelling鈥檚 value in equitably exploring public health. Health Educ Behav. 2021;48(3):352-360. doi: 10.1177/10901981211009741.