Dr. Gifty Ako-Adounvo is an accomplished global education leader and university senior administrator with more than 20 years of experience in the tertiary education sector. Prior to joining NOVA as Executive Director, Global Partnerships & Student Engagement, she served as Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and Senior International Officer at the University of Rhode Island in the United States of America, where she led the university’s internationalisation agenda. She has built and managed international academic and project partnerships in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America, South America, New Zealand and Australia to enhance faculty scholarship and research, dual degrees, special programmes, student recruitment and mobility, and capacity building.
As a faculty member Dr Ako-Adounvo has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses, mentored students and coached professionals. She has also held leadership positions in the USA at preeminent institutions including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Ohio State University.
Gifty Ako-Adounvo holds Masters and Doctoral degrees in Classical Studies from McMaster University, a premier public research university in Ontario, Canada. She also holds a first degree from the University of Ghana, Legon, where she studied Classics, English and Law.
Dr. Ako-Adounvo believes that a liberal education provides the bedrock on which to grow our higher academic specialisations and enables us in every sector of corporate, government, or academic endeavour to ask ourselves why we do what we do, how to achieve success, and whether that success impacts our communities and humankind positively.