People of MSK: Kemi Bolutayo Gaffney, Research Analyst
Kemi Bolutayo Gaffney,a Research Analyst in Health Informatics, received on-the-job training early in life for one of the toughest positions around: big sister. Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Nigerian immigrants who came to the United States for college, Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney is the oldest of five girls.
“I was like the second mom,” she remembers. “I learned from my family how to be a leader, make decisions, be independent, evaluate situations and move forward, skills that I use in my work today.”
Although born in the Midwest, she is a child of New York City – in fact, she has called nearly every borough home at one time. When she was only six months old, her parents moved to New York in search of better job opportunities. Following a brief sojourn in New Jersey, her father’s growing delivery business took the family to the Bronx and Brooklyn, where Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney went to elementary school. When her dad decided to go into real estate, they moved to Queens, where she attended junior high and high school. “I’ve lived everywhere in New York except Staten Island,” she points out.
Despite growing up in one of the most diverse cities in the world, Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney endured years of bullying for being “different.” Steeped in the culture of her immigrant parents, she and her sisters were raised as Nigerians – and they were mocked for it. “Today, it’s cool to be African,” she says. “It wasn’t like that when I was growing up. Being Puerto Rican or Caribbean was cool, but not African.”
Lunch was a particular misery, Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney remembers. “My mom always gave us Nigerian food for lunch, which was the last thing I wanted. I would have loved a bologna sandwich.”
Her name was something else that seemed to confound people. Teachers and fellow students stumbled over her first name so often that she finally encouraged them to simply call her “Kimmy, like Kimmy Gibbler in ‘Full House’” – taking refuge in the blandness of a popular TV show that aired from 1987 to 1995.
Image of Kemi Bolutayo Gaffney, Research Analyst
Those days are gone. “Now, I’m glad my mom held on to her culture – even with something as basic as packing her kids’ lunch,” she says. “Looking back, I realize that my culture made me who I am today, and I’m proud to be a child of immigrants, proud to be part of the diaspora. My culture is now being emulated by other cultures and I have nothing to be ashamed of.”
She also wants people to pronounce her given name correctly: Keh’-mee.
Despite schoolyard bullies, growing up in New York wasn’t all bad. Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney was passionate about stepping, also known as step-dancing – a form of percussive dance in which the dancer’s entire body is used as an instrument to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word, and hand claps. It’s an art form that blends African folk traditions with popular culture and has roots in the early African American slave community, where it was used as a means of communication. She participated in competitive step-dancing from 4th grade all the way through college at Binghamton University, finding an outlet for her energy in a joyful dance style that celebrates community and cohesion.
From Stepping to Scholarly Pursuits
After graduating from Binghamton in 2008, Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney joined MSK in September 2009 as a Research Secretary in Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. She earned her master’s in health education from Lehman College in 2014 and wanted to pursue work in that field, so she left MSK in 2015 and joined Mt. Sinai, where she worked in health education for two years. But MSK beckoned and she returned in 2017 as a Research Coordinator, working with psychologist Jamie Ostroff, PhD, and running a training program that educated providers on tobacco use in oncology patients.
In a departure from health education, Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney accepted her current role in May 2020, and now manages all regulatory aspects of research protocols that have an informatics component.
Kemi Bolutayo Gaffney, Research Analyst
“I was always good at information technology but was afraid to pursue it – I thought of it as a career for men,” she says. She remembers the expansive, well-funded technology program at college – that didn’t have a single woman participating in it. “When I was a junior, I wanted to switch my major from psychology to computer science, but my advisor discouraged me. He said I wouldn’t be able to graduate on time, so I gave up.”
That door closed, but years later a window at MSK opened.
“Now, I’m aware of all the opportunities in this field and recognize that I have a place in it. MSK has allowed me to land right where I’m supposed to be.”
The Happiest and the Saddest Year
On July 9, 2016, Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney married her best friend and the love of her life, Jonathan Gaffney.
Bride and groom with family members on either side
Three months later, she was pregnant. And then on December 23, she and her husband lost their daughter. It was only then that Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney learned she had large uterine fibroids that had caused her miscarriage.
“My heart was broken,” she says. “I started to do some research into fibroids and discovered that Black women are more likely than women of other races to have fibroids and more likely to have multiple large fibroids that can cause miscarriages.”
As a health educator and a grieving mother, she wanted to share her story and create a space where other women of color could talk about their experiences and access important health information. She created “Sip and Chat,” a series of discussions focused on health issues and their impact on people of color – topics have included uterine fibroids, cancer screening, sexual health, and Black men’s health, “because Black women are the ones who care for the whole family.”
“In our community, we don’t talk much about the health issues we go through,” says Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney. “But we should – let’s educate each other and figure out how to get the resources we need.”
She was living in Brooklyn when she launched Sip and Chat and found room for the discussions at a neighborhood bar, which offered free meeting space for community events. “That’s where the ‘Sip’ in the name came from,” she explains.
“Every event featured a panel of Black women from the health field and I’d get information and resources from local health agencies,” she continues. She publicized the series through social media and women gathered in droves.
COVID-19 brought the series to a halt, but Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney hopes to start it up again in the future. One subject she’d like to pursue is vaccine hesitancy and the anxiety some Black people have about getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
A New Day
Although she loves the city, Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney and her husband now live on Long Island – with their baby daughter, Jillian Kori Ifedayo Gaffney, who was born on January 26, 2021. Jillian’s name has several meanings: Jillian (“child of God”), Kori (“God’s peace”) and Ifedayo (“my love has turned to joy”). Ifedayo is a Nigerian name chosen as a reminder of Jillian’s connection to her ancestral home.
Sleeping baby with floral headband
“I’m exhausted, but I’m so in love with her that I forget how tired I am,” says Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney.
With the birth of her daughter, she has found new meaning in Black History Month – and a new appreciation for her parent’s efforts to keep their Nigerian culture alive in their young American family.
“Growing up as a Nigerian American, Black History Month has always been significant to me,” says Mrs. Bolutayo Gaffney. “I am proud to be African American. I get to understand the accomplishments that we’ve had in this country over centuries and it helps me understand what work still needs to be done to continue to advance the accomplishments of African Americans.”