The Governing Council of the C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences at its 20th Regular Meeting held on Monday 30th December 2024, appointed (on promotion) Dr. Evelyn Sakeah a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department, Family and Reproductive Health, of the School of Public Health to the rank of Associate Professor with effect from 1st January, 2025.
Her appointment makes her the first female in the history of the University to be appointed to the professorial rank.
Profile of Prof. Evelyn Sakeah
Prof. Evelyn Sakeah is a pioneer faculty member of the School of Public Health and was instrumental in its establishment. Prior to joining the CKT-UTAS Fraternity, she worked with the Navrongo Health Research Center (NHRC), where she contributed significantly to the research world and positively impacted policy formulation and implementation locally and globally.
Prof. Sakeah has been and is still interested in women’s health, maternal and child health, population and reproductive health, monitoring and evaluating health programmes and health systems, implementation of research outcomes, and community initiatives to prevent diseases.
She was part of the research team that tested Ghana’s flagship programme for primary health care- the Community-based Health Planning and Services Programme (CHPS).
She also led the development of culturally appropriate interventions to stop Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) using non-health services such as vocational training, and literacy promotion groups to provide girls with livelihood skills while using peer educators in existing youth groups to educate them about the health effects of FGM- an intervention strategy that achieved over 98% impact in reducing FGM in the Kassena-Nankana Districts. Prof. Sakeah and her team also conducted many other studies.
In recognition of her stellar achievements, she, together with like-minded individuals secured competitive grants including $11,000,000.00 for a project dedicated to improving community-based Primary Health Care through CHPS strengthening in the Upper East Region of Ghana, and ÂŁ800,000.00 for a project aimed at strengthening the quality of malaria care and surveillance in Ghanaian communities.
Prof. Sakeah is also the proud recipient of many prestigious fellowships and awards. These include a post-doctoral research fellowship from WHO-TDR (2014-2016); Global Health Fellowship (2018); University of Michigan African Social Research Initiative Summer Scholar, African Studies Center Research Grant, USA; Margaret McNamara Memorial Grant, World Bank, USA, Policy Communication Fellowship awarded by Population Reference Bureau (PRB), USA (2013); and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grant for the summer program on Reproductive Health and Development at John Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (2008).
Evidence of her enviable track record in research is also found in the over thirty (30) publications she authored/co-authored in journals of high repute, an H-index of 21, reviewed articles, and attended and participated in many conferences.
She is also a member of several professional bodies and/or Associations of global repute, notably the International Network to Analyse, Communicate and Transform the Campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (INTACT), the Partnership for Social Sciences in Malaria Control (PSSMC Network); the West African Research Association; Population Association of America; the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (WRA); American Public Health Association (APHA) and Equality Now.
Prof. Sakeah’s quest for excellence began with her academic journey from St. Francis Senior Secondary School where she was adjudged the overall best student for the Ordinary Level Certificate Examinations in the Upper West Region of Ghana in 1990.
She enrolled in the University of Ghana (after her Advanced Level education) where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with Economics in 1998.
Prof. Sakeah was unrelenting in her academic pursuits and earned a scholarship to pursue a Master of Public Health at the University of Pretoria South Africa and a PhD in Public Health at the Boston University School of Public Health in 2004 and 2014 respectively.
She crowned it all with two post-doctoral awards conferred by WHO-TDR (2014-2016) and the Northern Pacific Global Health Fellows Programme (Fogarty Global Health Fellow) – 2017/2018.
