Mary Oluwakanyinsola Owolabi

Mary Oluwakanyinsola Owolabi is from Nigeria and is pursuing a Master of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. She is a member of Christ Church. She is driven by the vision of a better-governed Africa and believes that when governance is strengthened, wider progress follows.

She graduated with a First Class in Mass Communication from Covenant University. Recently, she was named the Most Outstanding Fellow of the Legislative Mentorship Initiative, receiving the recognition from the Chief of Staff to the Nigerian President and the Speaker of the Ghana Parliament.

Mary serves as a Senior Legislative Aide to the Speaker of the Nigerian National Assembly, placing her at the heart of lawmaking. She is also a Government Affairs and Policy Analyst at Policy Vault Africa, advancing finance, gaming and space technology policies across Central, East and West Africa, including work with leading global aerospace companies. In addition, she served as a Program Manager in the youth wing of Africa’s largest political party, where she pushed for youth empowerment on a national scale.

Even with her high-level policy work, Mary remains committed to grassroots impact. She pioneered the policy and advocacy team at Sheevolution Africa, a leadership space for girls in marginalized communities, and led the Be A Leader Africa tour. Together, her efforts have reached more than 50,000 youths.

Outside work, Mary enjoys watching films and designing development marketing campaigns, one of which won a National Gold Medal at the Future Creative Leaders Award. She looks forward to Oxford as a space to learn, grow, and connect with people from around the world.