Q&A with Sola Olawore: Evaluating the Long-Term Safety of Antenatal Corticosteroids for Preterm Birth

For Oluwasolape “Sola” Olawore, one lecture during pharmacy school changed her career path. While attending a talk on “alternative” careers, she learned about pharmacoepidemiology, the study of the use, safety, and effectiveness of medications in human populations.

Olawore was inspired to do an internship with a national health service that allowed her to conduct research that informed policy in the region. “That cemented my change in trajectory from clinical pharmacy and working in a retail pharmacy to doing research full time,” she said.

Now a PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Olawore received a 2025 PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships in Value Assessment and Health Outcomes Research for her work studying the long-term safety of antenatal corticosteroids, a treatment given to pregnant people at imminent risk of preterm birth to accelerate the baby’s lung development.

Her research uses machine learning to analyze clinical data to identify pregnant people at high risk of preterm delivery and to understand how receiving antenatal corticosteroids influences children’s long-term brain development. Her goal is to provide evidence that can help guide decisions on when and for whom antenatal corticosteroids offer the greatest benefit.

Watch this video to learn more about Olawore and her research.

Learn more about the PhRMA Foundation’s fellowship and grant opportunities. Check out more researcher stories on our blog.