Dr. Innocent Ononiwu — York, Pennsylvania
Dr. Innocent Ononiwu
PharmD · PhD · Author · Children's Pastor · Medical Director, Aloft Healthcare
Dr. Innocent Ononiwu was born in Oka, Nigeria, the fifth of seven children. He grew up with modest means but with the kind of conviction that turns scarcity into fuel. He studied pharmacy at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife — the same institution where he would meet Victoria, and where the story of the foundation quietly began.
After earning his pharmacy degree and then his PhD in Pharmacology, Dr. Innocent went on to complete three postdoctoral fellowships at Howard University in Washington, D.C.: in Pharmacokinetics, Neuropharmacology, and Cancer Pharmacology. It was research — specifically, the pursuit of knowledge that could help heal — that brought him to America in 2003.
He served as the founding coordinator of the BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences program at Elizabeth City State University, as a visiting scholar at UNC Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy, and as an adjunct assistant professor at Howard University College of Pharmacy. Over 33 years in medical and pharmacy schools, he trained a generation of scientists and practitioners.
He is the author of four books. His most recent, Children's Ministry in a Digital Age (Trilogy Christian Publishing, 2024), introduces the TEEM-ED model of children's ministry — a framework distilled from nearly fifty years of working with children on two continents. His earlier work, God Knows My House Number (2010), is a personal collection of testimonies tracing God's faithfulness through decades of family life, ministry, and science.
Building something that serves the most vulnerable in our community — that is not just a business. It is a calling.
Education
PharmD, Obafemi Awolowo University · PhD, Pharmacology
Postdoctoral fellowships
Pharmacokinetics · Neuropharmacology · Cancer Pharmacology
Academic career
33 years in medical and pharmacy schools
Books authored
4, including Children's Ministry in a Digital Age (2024)
Ministry
50+ years · Happiness Club · TEEM-ED model founder
Current role
Co-founder & Medical Director, Aloft Healthcare
Photo coming soon
Victoria Ononiwu, RN, MA, MSN, MBA — York, Pennsylvania
Victoria Ononiwu
RN · MA · MSN · MBA (Healthcare) · CEO, Aloft Healthcare
Victoria Ononiwu — Vickie, to those who love her — was born and raised in Nigeria, the fifth of seven children. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in French from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, where she met Innocent. The two married, moved first to Ife, then to Port Harcourt, and then — in 2004 — to the United States, where a new chapter was waiting.
But Victoria did not simply follow her husband to America. She built. She pursued nursing, earning her Master of Science in Nursing alongside her MBA in Healthcare. With thirteen years of clinical experience as a delegating nurse, home health nurse, and Med-Surg nurse — and additional years as a case manager and nurse manager at a leading health insurance company — she brought a depth of expertise to everything she built.
That expertise culminated in Aloft Healthcare, the Maryland DDA-certified company she co-founded and leads as CEO. Under her leadership, Aloft has grown to serve adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities across multiple Maryland counties, employing more than 30 people with a culture grounded in dignity, consistency, and genuine care.
In every city the Ononiwus have lived — Maryland, Chesapeake, York — Victoria has served her church, her community, and the people around her with the same quiet, steady energy that characterizes everything she does. She is not loud about her impact. But it is everywhere.
"Every person who walks through our doors has a full life ahead of them. We are here to make sure the care around them is worthy of that life."
Education
BA & MA in French, OAU Ile-Ife · MSN · MBA (Healthcare)
Nursing experience
13 years — delegating nurse, home health, Med-Surg, case management
Leadership
Nurse manager at a leading US health insurance company
Languages
English · French · Igbo
Ministry
50+ years alongside Dr. Innocent in children's ministry and church service
Current role
Co-founder & CEO, Aloft Healthcare Inc.
Forty Years. One Mission.
Dr. Innocent and Victoria Ononiwu have been married for nearly forty years. They have five children and five grandchildren. They have lived in four cities across two countries and served faithfully in every one. They have built a healthcare company, written books, led children's ministries, and mentored pastors and leaders who are now impacting their own communities.
The foundation is not the beginning of their legacy. It is the structure that ensures their legacy continues — through children they will never meet, entrepreneurs they will never know, and researchers they may never see. That is enough. That has always been enough.