About

About Me

Mark Okafor, MD, is a pharmacist, research scientist, and board-certified physician who specializes in family and hospital internal medicine in Scottsdale, Arizona. He has been affiliated with HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center, among other facilities.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Okafor’s interests go beyond medicine. He is also a musical artist and humanitarian, having fallen in love not only with the sciences, but also with history, the arts, and music as a youngster.

Excelling as a Student in West Africa

As a young child, Dr. Okafor moved abroad to West Africa, where he attended middle and high school. He had the distinctive honor of scoring the highest for Nigeria’s Secondary School Common Entrance Exam in the region.

He later attended the University of Nigeria Secondary School, Nsukka (UNSSN), graduating second in his class of 250. UNSSN is an offshoot of the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria’s first Indigenous university. It is at the center of academic excellence, focusing on high scholarship, morals, and standards.

With a team of dedicated and committed staff, UNSSN prides itself on being one of the top schools in Nigeria. Its students have distinguished themselves locally and internationally in the arts and sciences. Dr. Okafor is among those distinguished students.

Pursuing a Pharmacy Degree in the States

Upon his return to the United States, Dr. Okafor elected to pursue a pharmacy pre-medicine college degree. Rounding up high school at 16, he had intended to attend Harvard University, the only Ivy League school in his birth state of Massachusetts. The expectation at that young age had been that he would go to college in the Bay State to remain close to his family who lived there, but he was disappointed to learn that Harvard did not offer a pharmacy program, which jaded his view of the Ivy League. Mark Okafor, MD, thus elected to attend Northeastern University in Boston on a merit-based academic full scholarship. He received a PharmD degree with High Honors and won multiple awards at Northeastern.

Before attending medical school, he took some time off to nurture his other passions, including songwriting and playing music. He still writes and performs music all these years later, with releases on Apple Music, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and numerous other platforms. His music encompasses a breezy fusion of pop-rock and jazz subgenres.

Dr. Okafor’s Pharmacy Practice and Academic Career

Mark Okafor, MD, began his pharmacy practice and academic career at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Pharmacy, which was at the time the top pharmacy program in the United States. As the oldest pharmacy school in the West, the UCSF School of Pharmacy has a long history of accomplishment in science, patient care, and training tomorrow’s PhD researchers and PharmD clinicians. The school has been receiving more National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding than any other pharmacy school in the United States every year since 1979.

Dr. Okafor later accepted an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic as a Cardiology clinical staff pharmacist. Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center providing clinical and hospital care and is a leader in research, education, and health information.

He then went on to complete other pharmacy appointments, ultimately attending Purdue University, Indiana, where he trained in clinical research, taught lectures, and acquired a PhD in Health Outcomes Research. His PhD encompassed extensive studies in Pharmacy Administration, Pharmacoeconomics, Clinical trials, Drug Research, Public Health, Organizational Leadership, and Management studies.

Attending Medical School, Practicing Internal & Family Medicine

After a few years of clinical research, consulting work, and startup efforts, Dr. Mark Okafor considered the unique opportunity of attending medical school via a multicontinental odyssey that took him through training in the U.S., Europe, and the West Indies. He attended and graduated from Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) in Miramar, Florida, in 2015.

Today, Mark Okafor, MD, practices Internal & Family Medicine predominantly in the hospital setting. Family Medicine is a specialty dedicated to the care of the whole person, and individuals of all ages. Dr. Okafor diagnoses and treats patients with acute and chronic medical conditions in a high acuity setting.

Dr. Mark Okafor’s Many Interests, Strong Faith

In addition to music, Dr. Mark Okafor has numerous other interests, including Christian ministry, humanitarian work, athletics, aviation, food, travel, languages, history, science, and technology. He expresses his strong Christian faith introspectively: “At my most humble, I’m a flawed individual; but for the grace of God, I would’ve amounted to nothing… I’m more than a conqueror through Christ. And, every day, I proceed as a work in progress. I’m grateful for indomitable, devout, scholarly, immigrant parents who worked extremely hard to bestow upon me better opportunity than they had, and who have continued to be my biggest fans… They are the greatest.”

Dr. Mark Okafor’s diverse interests are reflected in his many achievements, including his three doctorate degrees, his medical practice, and his music album release of original compositions.