Prof. Dr. Elsie Effah Kaufmann became the first female Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana in 2022. She is a Biomedical Engineer and Academic as well as The current Quiz Mistress for the National Science and Math Quiz. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, a Master of Science in Engineering and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, all attained from the University of Pennsylvania. She has published numerous scholarly pieces and has received several recognitions and awards in her country, Ghana, and internationally for her contribution, support and commitment to the STEM fields. This year, she raised the bar higher and smashed a glass ceiling by becoming the first female Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana. The CEO of Moving Women Empowerment Network, Dr. (Des) Sarah Bomkapre Koroma was honoured to have a chat with her Dr. Elsie Effah Kaufmann.
Having attained such a great achievement of becoming the first female Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana, what was your reaction to the news?
I got the message via email from the registrar of the university, another woman, who sent me the message that I had been selected and appointed by the chancellor of the university as the in-coming Dean of Engineering Sciences. There was nothing female about it by the way, it was later on that the news broke out that I was the first female. I had applied for the job in January this year and went for an interview. I had an ambitious vision for the school and so I had been preparing myself for this. It’s been a long time coming, I was a member of the team that setup the School of Engineering Science at The University of Ghana and I have it very close to my heart. I want to do the best for the school and make sure it is visible and I have all these ideas and I think they have done a very good choice with me.
I notice that you are passionate about what you do, just to take you down memory lane, have you always known that this is something you always wanted to become and how did you get into this field?
I was a very curious child but I never thought about Engineering. In fact, when I was in school, you know teachers have influence on what subjects we take and so when it was time to pick a subject I was put in a science class because I did well in an exam. And when you get into a science class usually they prepare you to get into medical school to become a Medical Doctor; Engineering did not feature in my class at all. Then I got a chance to study abroad on a scholarship in the UK. I was still preparing for medical school, I was planning on applying in the USA when I discovered that you could not apply and get directly into medical school, you had to do a pre-med programme. While reading a brochure for the university of Pennsylvania, I came across Bio-Engineering and I thought it was a pre-med programme so I applied for it. Once I got in and I discovered it was Engineering, I started enjoying it and decided to stay back.
So what is Biomedical Engineering and what do Biomedical Engineers do?
Using the knowledge of material science, chemistry and physics to come up or repair body parts like body tissues is what we do. Another part of Biomedical Engineering is to design and build all the equipment used in hospitals. To diagnose diseases these equipment are a necessity. We are like the jack of all trades; in Engineering. What we have in common is our ability to solve problems in Biology and in health care but we use all the various types of Engineering; all the sciences and mathematics to do that job. Every hospital should really have a Biomedical Engineering team to make sure all technology used in hospitals are properly maintained and deployed. They can even support the Doctors and other professionals in hospitals in their work that they do by giving advice and technical support to them. Unfortunately, that is not where we are now but we are in the process of training more Biomedical Engineers on the continent; by the way my programme here at the University of Ghana was one of the first undergraduate programmes on the continent.
From your TED Talk in 2018, there was a question raised on the equipment in Biomedical Engineering and you mentioned that people were skeptical to use Equipment produced in Ghana or on the continent and they asked whether local Biomedical Engineers were capable of innovating their own equipment, has this skepticism changed?
It hasn’t changed to the extent I would like to see, but what I could say is that there is a lot more awareness now and people know about us. In the early days, our programme started in 2004, that was when we got our first batch of students who graduated in 2008. That was our first locally trained Biomedical Engineers. They didn’t know about us, even in hospitals they didn’t know what purpose we would serve. But now we have many of our big hospitals with Biomedical Engineering teams. So it’s progress and I have also been doing a lot of talking. Now there is interest in innovation and a lot of talk about STEM in Ghana, with a lot of people trying to get more practical experiences so that they can come up with programmes that are useful. But we have a long way to go still, because there is still the importation culture, it is easier to import something that was produce elsewhere than to develop it from scratch. But if we are able to practice and do this, eventually we will produce products that are better suited to our own circumstances because we understand our context instead of us importing something that has been developed for a different setting. So we continue to be hopeful.
There are a lot of people who go to study abroad and decide to stay there; what motivated you to come back to Ghana even after you spent more than a decade abroad?
I spent a lot of time outside because my education alone took more than 10 years, but the whole time I was out there the plan was to comeback home eventually because I left Ghana on scholarship. I did take everything very seriously, the way I was brought up, my parents especially my father if you make a promise you keep it, that was a simple rule. So when I was leaving, I remember being told clearly that the purpose of this scholarship was to go out there, get experience and come back home and make a difference. That was the promise. And at the time I didn’t know what the difference will be. I had no idea but as time went on I began to find what that difference was going to be for me. And it has been in education especially STEM education. So I left on a promise and I was going to keep it, it was just a matter of what time I was going to come and do what I was supposed to do.
So one of the things you are known for in Ghana is that you are the quiz mistress for the National Science and Math Quiz; raising a whole generation that would become interested and hopefully decide to study in the STEM fields. You have been doing that since 2006, why did you accept to be the quiz mistress?
So I was in the department of physics doing my work as passionately as I could when the department head asked if I could join a team to do the National Science and Math Quiz. I didn’t know what it was and so I told him I had to know first; so I was invited on set for the show to meet the quiz mistress then who was getting ready to leave for her PhD and that is why there was a vacancy. So I went to see her and during the break she asked me if could do it and I said I could and that was it. I had to learn very quickly, I was just thrown in there and I went for it.
How important are such programmes especially when it comes to encouraging young people to go into STEM fields, because African countries are clearly lagging behind when it comes to STEM fields.
You have to see it to know what it is about; it is amazing because Ghanaians are so passionate about it. Do you know that young students in basic schools start targeting what secondary schools to get in just so they can be on a team on the programme? One of the objectives of the programme is to demystify science and to make it attractive to everybody and I think the programme is doing it; because what happens then is that these young people even from the young age start to follow science with so much excitement and they want to be a part of the teams that come up there so they study really hard so that they get into the best schools for science. And when they get a chance, they show up on stage to show what they can do and there is support from the whole country because once we start the month long programme, everything comes to a standstill in Ghana. Everyone watches the programme and they support their favourite teams. So it makes a huge impact on science and the popularisation of science; making people want to do science. Of course we have more work to do like making the science subject practical but at least, at the very least, people are thinking about science because they see programmes like this. And another thing the programme does is that we actually direct the teaching of concepts. The consulting team sometimes decides, I remember sometime back we decided on a topic like “significant figures” as our theme for the year and actually set questions around it. And in the beginning you could see the teachers and students all complain because they were getting the answers wrong, but by the time they show up the following year, they would have all learned how to do it. So we are able to direct the study of certain topics in science and math just by doing this programme. And that, I think is very powerful. The students study so hard and you could check and see that they have better academic performance.
I see how important this programme is to the young students; now I am curious about the girls, how is the percentage of their participation?
It has been a challenge for us all these years. The programme has been running for 29 years, we have never had a girl school be the champions; well at least not yet. This is a sore point for us really, they have been to the finals and just on last year’s show we had a young lady from a mixed school and now what I do is when I see girls from mixed schools, I congratulate them because mixed schools have the tendency of fusing in just young men. So when a young lady is fused in like that, we make a lot of noise about them and congratulate the schools. So the girls are participating but not to the same extent and they certainly don’t go as far in the competition as we would like to see. There are certain barriers that they are faced with and I think we need to look into that and find ways of putting these barriers aside.
They are myths that unfortunately surround STEM subjects and courses and some people still think these are men fields. Would you say this is one of the reasons why or it is something coming from homes and societies that influence how we think about girls?
Yes, it’s hard to envision something different if that is what you have seen all your life. We have not had many examples in these fields like Physical Sciences and Engineering. In the Biological and Medical Sciences I am not seeing too big of a problem because there are a lot of women there doing very well. But we still have that challenge in the Physical, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences. It’s a challenge of mindset, a challenge of expectations and a challenge of representation. You know, if you have not seen the examples you don’t have the role models in those areas, it is difficult to envision yourself doing some of these subjects. So if in your department, for example, let’s say there is no Engineer there and you are a woman in that department, to envision yourself even becoming a lecturer or a Dean like me when you have never seen one is little bit more difficult. But I think the more work we do to change this mindset, to have more examples and people talking about their lives and expectations being more equal, so if a woman wants to do these courses they should be encouraged instead of being discouraged and making it seem like the subjects are too hard for women. We are just as capable, it is just a matter of nurturing and making sure we have the right environment to help us reach our full potential.
Representation is surely important and that is why we do what we do, to share stories of women such as yourself to motivate others. But I could imagine you studying Engineering at a time when we did not have much representation, how was it for you?
Yes, there are certain people who find it unusual you know, so they will see me and be surprised that I am in Engineering. But I never really made that to limit myself, I was too busy really. But yes a lot of times I would go to certain places and be the only woman there. But what helped me was to have my goals and objects very clear in my mind. I knew what I wanted to do and once I decide on what I want to do; it is very difficult to deter me from doing it. I was not going to look around me and see that I am the only woman and let that stop me, in fact that encourages me to do my best. What I also do is that I try to bring up other women behind me so that next time I will not be the only one. This year already I have been on two panel discussions where I was a panelist with my own students, two females, so it is beginning to happen.
You have achieved a lot and you have more achievement to come, we would like to know where you see yourself in the years to come and your aspirations?
A lot of things coming up, I am actually going to be launching a foundation very soon even before August. This foundation is going to be a change making foundation, it is around education and increasing scientific knowledge in the general public and the industry as well. I am so excited and I see myself doing many projects in bringing out STEM education; first in Ghana and then the continent at large in Africa.
As a role model speaking to young women and men seeking the same field as yours. What would you say to them on the importance of STEM field; especially for people from Africa?
STEM in particular or participating in STEM trains you to be a problem solver and we have plenty of problems in our continent. And if there is a discipline that is training you to have a certain way of thinking, a certain way of approaching problems and coming up with solutions that address the problems that are identified, then we have to support it. Because nobody is going to come and solve our problems for us, we have to do the hard work, we have to do the heavy lifting to solve that we see around us. If you want to change the world, there is nothing better than STEM training to help you change the world because what it does for you is to help you clearly see what you are confronted with, to strategise on how you can approach the problem that you are seeing, to use the resources that are available to you and good thinking and problem solving skills to come up with solutions to the problems that have been disturbing us all these years. So we cannot do without i.e. we need to start thinking of ourselves and how to deal with the realities of our lives.
And for those who are in a position to make a difference, maybe first an understanding of what it is will help. If you cannot identify with it, it is difficult to make policies or take actions that will benefit in your vast. So we have to do more advocacy those of us in the STEM fields, to try and bring general understanding which is why I am going to target this as one of my areas in my foundation; to raise the level of STEM understanding in our general population. Because we are the ones with the power to make a difference, so if we understood the power of science and math and technology and what it can do for us maybe it will change the way we do our things.
Next thing is to identify what we want to achieve. If we have outcomes that we can measure, then we can prioritise to achieve those outcomes. But what I see most of the times is decisions being made anyhow without any regard for the outcome that we want to achieve. If you make plans to just do activities, without any target, you will be very busy doing all sort of things but you will not achieve the objective that you need to achieve. And so I am pleading with all of us, especially those in positions of power, who make the policies and so on, let’s come up with measurable outcomes so that we can check to see whether we are making progress or not. Let us not be quick to change something just because it’s a political thing because of political power without recourse to research to see what and whether it will be successful or not. Let us make decisions based on evidence and scrutiny before we proceed and do many of these activities; just throwing money at the problem is not going to solve it. We need to prioritize, what exactly is the problem? and what are we trying to achieve? and what should we do in order to achieve the outcome that we want to see. That is what I want all of us to do and let’s hold people accountable, when people are being held to be accountable, they will be more ready to do what is right.
To sum up, what legacy would you like to leave as the Dean?
By the time I am done, what I would like to see is when you mention school of Engineering Sciences University of Ghana all of you would know about it because it will be a powerhouse of Engineering education on our continent. If you come to the school you should be able to see vibrant activities, student innovators, professors teaching and coming up with tangible commercial products coming out of our university, out of the work of these new innovators that we are going to be bringing out.
What would you say to the women looking up to you as their role model?
If you are a woman reading my story, wondering what you can do to succeed. First of all, decide what success looks like to you, we don’t all have the same objectives or the same aspirations in life so decide what success looks like for you. Make a plan and systematically follow the plan, you will have to work hard and you would have to make sacrifices, it’s all worth it. Work really hard and do your very best because it is possible. Do not reinvent the will, there will be people where you will want to go, find those people and listen and learn and keep going. It is possible.
Watch the interview on our youtube channel: Moving Women Empowerment Network.