Dr. David Olali is Founder and Director of the Comparative Heritage Project and Comparative Heritage Institute, and served as Academic Professional Associate and Assistant Director of the African Studies Institute at the University of Georgia (2023–2026), where he taught across more than eight departments and served as Interim Director.
Trained in religion at Claremont Graduate University (PhD, 2018) after graduate and undergraduate study at the University of Ibadan, his scholarship examines scriptures as social power: how texts, technology and violence shape nationhood, gender, ecology and heritage across Africa and its diaspora.
Through the Comparative Heritage Institute he directs six flagship programs and originated Comparativity Complex Theory and Heritage Security Intelligence, advising universities, foundations, governments and leaders on heritage, security and development, curriculum, and leadership.
He is also a curious IT investor and a cybersecurity and heritage intelligence analyst, certified as a CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+). Ten ventures are now in build under his direction, from mobility and civic platforms to scholarly publishing, and he treats their security architecture as part of the work rather than an afterthought — verified identity, auditable records and safeguarding designed in from the start. Heritage Security Intelligence, the framework he originated, is where the two halves of his practice meet.