Trustees for Tertiary Education Scholarship Trust for Ghana

 

Saeed Abdul-Razak, Phd - Chair

Dr. Saeed Abdul-Razak assumed the role of TEST for Ghana Chair in the last quarter of 2022. However, he has served as a trustee for the scholarship since its inception in 2008. Dr. Saeed’s efforts were instrumental in the smooth administration of applications in T4G's initial roll out. 

Having pursued BSc in Land Economy at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, he furthered his education in MSc Environmental Change and Management at the University of Oxford, UK, as a Norman and Ivy Lloyd Scholar. 

After his MSc, Dr. Saeed worked with as a Climate Change Professional in Ghana primarily focused on policy work, research, and advocacy for local community rights recognition in climate governance. During this time, he was also engaged in the international climate negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) pushing for climate justice. 

Saeed Abdul-Razak obtained a doctorate degree at the University of Reading in 2018. His research, funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (UK) and using Ghana as a case study, interrogated how countries and institutions localised international climate agreements such as REDD+. 

Since 2017, Saeed has worked in various climate change resilience and sustainability roles including in ICF International as a Climate Resilience Analyst and with the Rainforest Alliance as the Global Theme Lead for Climate. He is currently working in the Environment and Climate Cluster of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ghana. 

Saeed firmly believes that we are all connected, so the collective well-being of society is a goal that we must all have at heart and actively portray in actions.

 

Wisdom Eli Akatu - Trustee

Wisdom is an Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Professional with over ten (10) years of experience within the mining, power, and water resources sectors. His academic and professional experience includes a substantial amount of critical overlap between the engineering and environmental science disciplines, which is central to many innovative projects within the civil and environmental engineering field.  
He holds a First-Class honors degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, and served as a Teaching/Research Assistant in the same institution after completion. He pursued his Master of Science degree at the University of Oxford in Water Science, Policy, and Management (2009/10) as a Commonwealth/Norman & Ivy Lloyd Scholar. Wisdom is currently a Doctoral researcher at the Villanova Center for Resilient Water Systems (VCRWS) in Pennsylvania, USA. 
Prior to joining the research group at VCRWS in Pennsylvania, USA, Wisdom worked for Knight Piésold Consulting, a global engineering and environmental firm, as the Environmental Manager for their West Africa operations for about ten (10) years. He managed several pre-feasibility and bankable feasibility projects, including Environmental Impact Assessments for mine facilities, gas-receiving plants, and hydropower schemes across the West African sub-region. He is intimately aware of the level of information required to satisfy regulator and institutional lender demands (i.e., International Finance Corporation/Equator Principles).             

 

Leander Kandilige - Trustee

Dr. Leander Kandilige is a Lecturer of Migration Studies at the University of Ghana. He is also a Visiting Lecturer, University of Northampton and Research Associate, Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford).

He holds a D.Phil. (PhD) in Migration Studies from the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. His DPhil. thesis is entitled 'Transnationalism and the Ghanaian diaspora in the UK: regional inequalities and the developmental effects of remittances at the sub-national level'. In addition, he holds an MSt in Forced Migration (University of Oxford); MA in International Affairs (University of Ghana); Postgraduate Certificate in Managing Voluntary Organisations (University of Southampton) and BA (First Class Honours) in Political Science and Philosophy (University of Ghana).

Leander has extensive experience in academia, social housing, works and pensions, and empirical research in the UK over a period of 14 years. In Ghana, Leander previously worked in various positions within the University of Ghana (Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, Chairman of Alumni Associations, Founder of the Ghana Wildlife Society) and the Parliament of Ghana (Legislative Research Assistant).

Dr. Kandilige was a trustee of the Tertiary Education Scholarship Trust (TEST) for Africa from 2008 to 2013. He became Chairman of TEST for Ghana in May 2014, after returning from the United Kingdom.

 

Kokui Adzo Adu - Trustee

Mrs. Kokui Adu is a Data Analyst and Financial Management professional with considerable experience in planning and financial management. She has worked in various roles in tertiary institutions and the financial services industry including positions in senior management at the University of Ghana, a Lecturer in Finance and Investments at GIMPA, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Assurance Research Institute of KPMG LLP, Montvale, USA. From 2009 to 2013 she was the Chief Executive Officer of the Students Loan Trust Fund. Kokui, holds an MBA in Corporate Finance and InvestmentS Management from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.

Her success in various roles has been demonstrated through key achievements at the University of Ghana where she established the Students Financial Aid Office the first of its kind in any public tertiary institution in the country. She played a key role in the setting up of the Students Loan Trust Fund, growing the institution to its current status as a reliable partner in addressing cost sharing in tertiary education in Ghana. She serves on the Boards of the Central Securities Depository, Ghana Revenue Authority and until recently on the Board of the Students Loan Trust Fund.

Until recently Mrs Kokui Adu was the Managing Director of Firstbanc Financial Services Limited, an integrated investment banking and financial advisory firm.

 

Dr Philemon Gyasi-Antwi - Trustee

Philemon is a Research Fellow in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham, UK. The fellowship funded by the InDependent Diabetes Trust (IDDT) is supporting him to develop functional immunoassays, in vitro tissue modelling and biomarker profiling to generate novel antimicrobial polymeric vehicles for drug delivery and wound healing.

He studied MSc Integrated Immunology at Linacre College, Oxford, with support from Norman and Ivy Lloyd /Commonwealth Shared Scholarship and completed a PhD in Immunology at the University of Nottingham. His doctorate investigated the role of hxc-type II secretion system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa during pathogenesis. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.

 

Dennis Awuah - Trustee

Dr. Dennis Awuah is a Research Fellow at the Beckman Research Institute (BRI), City of Hope in Duarte California, where he is Project lead for the development of safe and innovative immunotherapies for haematological tumours such as leukaemia and multiple myeloma. He holds a Master’s degree in Immunology from The University of Oxford (Norman and Ivy Lloyd Scholar/Commonwealth) and a Ph.D. in Immuno-Bioengineering from the University of Nottingham UK, where he was a recipient of the prestigious Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Award.

Dennis has extensive knowledge and expertise in areas of Biomedical and Bioengineering Research from malaria vaccine development to design and characterization of novel chimeric antigen-specific receptors (CARs). Prior to joining the BRI, he worked on an European Union Consortium project developing and testing human immune responses to diverse micro-fabricated biomaterials. He has held previous roles at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, The U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit, The University of Oxford and most recently, The University of Nottingham.

Dennis was appointed to the Trust in 2012 where he oversees Alumni Relations for TEST Scholars.

 

Adwoa Boatemaa Appiah - Trustee

Adwoa Appiah EMBA (UG), MSc (Oxon), BSc (KNUST) is currently a PhD Candidate in Sustainability Management at the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development (SEED) at the University of Waterloo. She has 10 years working experience with development financial institutions and commercial banks in Africa in diverse roles including environmental management, corporate banking, relationship management and transaction banking. Her most recent past role was managing the cash management needs of international development organizations and financial institutions across 33 African countries for a leading Pan-African bank. She enjoys reading inspirational books, volunteering with the youth, traveling, and trying out new recipes.

 

Heather Asare-Awuku - Trustee

Heather is an Officer of the Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the Petroleum Commission, the regulator of Ghana's Upstream Petroleum Sector.  She has been with the Commission for the past five years and is responsible mainly for monitoring the health, safety and environmental performance of companies operating in the Sector.    She is passionate about environmental and sustainable issues and is a member of the Ghana Institute of Safety and Environmental Professionals (GHISEP) as well as the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) UK.

Heather is NEBOSH IGC certified and holds an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford, UK (Norman and Ivy Lloyd Scholar).  For her undergraduate studies, she holds a BSc in Environmental Science from Kwame Nkrumah University of Sicence and Technology, Ghana

 

Emmanuel Abaloo - Trustee

Emmanuel is a White Rose Doctoral Scholar, undertaking a PhD in Human Geography at the University of Hull. He takes pleasure in helping to create access for the youth toward a brighter future