Grace OLOUKOI is an academic with core training in Urban and Regional Planning, and Geography. She obtained her PhD in Geography and Planning Science from the University of Ado-Ekiti in 2010. She joined the service of Lead City University in April 2006. She rose to be the first to hold a Professorial Chair of Urban Planning and Environmental Management at that University in 2020. As a pioneer staff, she was instrumental in the establishment of all programmes in the field of the Built Environment at Lead City University where she presently serves as the pioneer Dean, of the Faculty of Environmental Design and Management. Her research focuses on Climate Extremes and Environmental Governance, Urban Infrastructure Planning, Climate Adaptation and Social Change, Environmental Resources Stewardship, and Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI), with a special interest in water issues within Environmental Systems. She is a recipient of some scholarships and grants: the START International, USA on Climate Change, International Science Foundation (IFS) on Environmental Change and Water Vulnerability; Urban Water Infrastructure by the United Nations Industrial Organization (UNIDO); the Global Environmental Change for Africa (GEC-Africa) and a Comparative Study on land use pattern in the Sudano-Guinea Savanna by CODESRIA.
Under the African Climate Change Fellowship Programme, Oloukoi was a visiting scholar at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in 2009. At present, she is one of the Co-Principal Investigators in one of the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) projects funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the UK Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) with the title: ‘A Pan-African and Trans-disciplinary Lens on the Margins: Tackling the Risks of Extreme Events (PALM-TREEs). She is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP). Oloukoi is the Founder of the ‘Water for Life Support Foundation’, an NGO with advocacy, research and community actions for improved access to water in a changing world.