Kenyan-born academic Patricia Kingori has made history by becoming the youngest Black professor at the UK’s prestigious Oxford University.

The Kenyan-born sociologist becomes the youngest Black woman ever to be awarded a full professorship in Oxford’s 925-year history.

Professor Kingori, who specialises in the experiences of frontline health workers, expressed gratitude about the appointment.

“To have my body of work recognised in this way is a great honour, and I am deeply grateful to the many people who have inspired and supported me so far,” she said.

She has also served as adviser to several global organisations including the WHO, Save the Children and Médecins Sans Frontières, the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, and the Obama administration’s White House Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment in Africa Initiative.

Kingori was born in Kenya to a Kenyan father and Caribbean mother, spent her childhood in St Kitts, before the family moved to the UK during her early teens. Her sister, Vanessa Kingori, is the first female publisher in British Vogue’s 102-year history.

As of January of 2021, only 155 out of more than 23,000 university professors in the UK were black, according to official figures.