Oyinda Oyelaran graduated from Salem College summa cum laude with honors in chemistry. During her time at Salem, she conducted research through the NSF-Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Programs at the University of Oregon and the University of Virginia, and at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL).

Upon graduation from Salem, she conducted research in medicinal chemistry at MRL, then went on to pursue graduate studies in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University as an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship awardee and a UNCF-Merck Graduate Research Dissertation Fellow, earning her PhD in 2005. From 2006-2009, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Gildersleeve. Her research at the NCI focused on synthesis of carbohydrate antigens and developing a carbohydrate microarray platform and process for profiling anti-carbohydrate serum antibodies. From 2009-2011, she was an Assistant Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at Williams College.

Oyinda joined the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB) at Northeastern University in 2011. She teaches Organic Chemistry I & II for majors and non-majors. She has also been co-PI of CCB’s NSF-REU site program since 2018. Oyinda served as COS Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs from 2021 to 2023.