Nigeria’s first indigenous female neurosurgeon, Dr Salamat Ahuoiza Aliu-Ibrahim, has been appointed Medical Director of a children’s hospital in the United States.
The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) disclosed this in a statement signed by Abdur-Rahman Balogun, its Director of Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit, on Thursday, saying its Chairman/CEO, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, congratulated Aliu-Ibrahim on the appointment.
Dr. Salamat Ahuoiza Aliu-Ibrahim is Nigeria’s first indigenously trained female neurosurgeon and the first female certified neurosurgeon in West Africa. Born in 1980 in Ilorin, Kwara State, she hails from the Ebira ethnic group in the Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State. She has made headlines globally for her medical achievements and her recent high-profile career transition to the United States.
She received most of her formal and medical education at the University of Ilorin. She later completed a specialized pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Harvard Medical School.
She served as a Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital and previously worked at the National Hospital in Abuja.
She comes from an extraordinary family of medical trailblazers; all four of her sisters are also medical doctors specializing in plastic surgery, obstetrics, family medicine, and public health.U.S.
To pursue further professional growth, she relocated to the United States, where she navigated the competitive U.S. medical residency process. She pivoted her clinical focus and retrained to become a pediatrician.
On July 21, 2026, she was officially appointed as the Medical Director of the Freeman Children's Clinic, a facility under the Freeman Health System in Joplin, Missouri.