U.S. Board Spotlight: Shola Omojokun
Meet Shola Omojokun. During the day, Shola is committed to leading Chick-fil-A’s international employment and global immigration work as Sr. Counsel. Outside the office, she’s a devoted wife and mother of three based in Atlanta, GA. Her plate just got a little fuller, adding the title of Untold board member to her sweeping collection of accolades. More than just her education — which includes a B.A. from the University of Georgia and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law — and over a decade of experience working in law, Shola brings a distinct perspective to the Untold’s board.
Shola’s passion for combatting stigma, especially as it affects underserved communities, drives her both personally and professionally. Having served on two prior boards, including a brief stint at Atlanta-based non-profit, Raising Expectations Inc., Shola is expertly positioned for the logistics of board governance while also having a heart for Untold’s clients.
A foundational part of her upbringing, Shola spent her life until college in Nigeria. Shola considers her cultural context of being West African an asset to the board. More than anything, Shola is approaching her new journey with a learning spirit, eager to lend her passion, energy, and global expertise to moving Untold forward as we grow in our target regions.
Tell us a little bit about you and your family.
My husband, Olu, and I have been married for nine years. We have three active and wonderful kids — 7-year-old twins, Olutobi and Temilade, and a three-year-old, Tifeolu, who thinks he rules the family (and he kind of does).
I was born and raised in Nigeria and came to the U.S. for college. Olu was born in Nigeria but raised in the States, and the kids were born here. We like to say we’re Nigerian-American. The reason I mention Nigeria is that Nigerian names typically have significant meanings attached to them, and the kids all act according to their names. (Olutobi means God is great, Temilade means the crown/royalty is mine, Tifeolu means God’s will).
I love to travel, and because I came to the U.S. when I was young and in college, I went through a dual immigrant experience. I've always had a passion for underserved communities and in various forms have always had a passion for mentorship and embracing others because I experienced a whole lot of grace moving to this country. So it's kind of like, how do you pay it forward?
I’ve been at Chick-fil-A for five years, and I focus now on leading our international employment work and our global immigration work. Now that Chick-fil-A is expanding overseas, we have staff in different countries. I support our international business team on all things employment and immigration, as we think about how we take Chick-fil-A's culture of care globally.
What drew you to Untold’s work?
Number one, I love the positioning of the church. I think that the church is a community and a place of refuge. I think that that's how Christ intended it to be. A place of refuge not just for folks who already know God, but for folks who need him. That's why He came to this world for folks who the world would otherwise cast away. Growing up back home, the church was often the one doing some of that [casting away], coming from a place of not being informed. So I love the recasting of the church how God intended, using the church to embrace and and equip.
I also love going back to Untold’s mission, right? Embracing and equipping people to live a life beyond AIDS. I love those two words [embrace and equip] because I think it starts with creating a space where people know they’re worthy and loved by God and their community — important pieces to psychological and emotional safety. It's connecting the emotional and psychological with the practical for long-term longevity.
And I think that there’s another piece: partnership. I believe in community and people helping themselves to help each other. I especially love our model of partnership, and the interconnectedness of our teams cross-culturally. We work together, excelling in different areas to drive the mission and vision forward together. That is how the work is done and that is how it’s going to be successful in the long-term.
What are you most looking forward to on your upcoming Impact Trip?
More than anything, I would love to learn from the staff. At a center’s core are the two center staff [working alongside 1 Community Health Worker, 1 Male Champion, and 1 Youth Mentor]. These are folks who are invested in God’s work and being used by Him. I really want to learn what drew them to this and how they care for themselves. This is heavy work for them. I want to know about their pain points and how, if anything, we can continue to support them.
What do you hope to learn from Untold while serving on the board?
Because Untold has such a unique model, I want to learn more about how we manage the relationships between teams while keeping us all aligned and grounded. I think it requires a lot of cultural sensitivities and muscles on our part in the United States, and even on the African teams. Tanzania is different from Kenya, Kenya is different from South Africa, but we're making it work. For me, that's the secret sauce. I want to dig into how that magic happens. Because I think that's something you can scale, right? Right now at Chick-fil-A, we're starting to grow globally, and that growth always comes with the question of how you interact with your teammates in different jurisdictions with different cultural lenses. This is an area where we can learn from Untold.
