Prof. Opoku-Agyemang’s political visibility began when she co-hosted the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) sponsored presidential debates in 2012. Shortly after in 2013, she served as the Minister of Education under the Mahama-led administration in a four-year term which ended in 2017. Prof. Opoku-Agyeman is now the Vice-presidential running mate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), alongside Former President John Dramani Mahama.
Before her political roles, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang was appointed the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in 2008, the first female Vice-Chancellor of a public university in Ghana.
Before heading the university, she had, since 1986, served as head of the Department of English, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dean of the Board of Graduate Studies, and Founding Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research at the same university.
She is presently the second female chancellor of Women’s University in Africa, Zimbabwe.
Prof Opoku-Agyemang has chaired over 20 Boards and Committees. She is the current Africa Board Chairperson of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) where she has been a member since 2014. In October 2009, she was elected Ghana’s representative to UNESCO’s Executive Board and has since been re-elected for a second time.
Other Boards and Committees she has chaired include the Council of the University of Education, Winneba 1998-2002; Academic Committee of the Ghana Council for Tertiary Education, the Adjudication Committee, VALCO Literary Awards, Ghana 1993-1998; Board of Governors, Ghana Centre for Democracy Development (CDD-Ghana) since its founding in 1998 and, Board of Governors, Wesley Girls High School 1994-1998. She was also the Joint Co-coordinator of the Specialist Program in English Language and Ghanaian Culture for Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers from 1991-1993.
She is a member of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences; University Teachers Association of Ghana; English Studies Association; African Studies Association, USA; African Literature Association, USA; and the International Fulbright Scholars Association. She is the recipient of four honorary doctoral degrees; the Global Leadership Award; many national and international awards. She is also a two-time Fulbright scholar and is currently a Fellow of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL). She has authored many books like “The Handbook of Writing Skills”.
She has served as Academic Director of the School for International Training in the History and Cultures of the African Diaspora for 11 years. In March 2007, she was one of five scholars selected to deliver presentations during the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The Ghana Women of Excellence Award was conferred on her in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of quality education in Ghana.
She obtained her Diplôme Supérieure d’Etudes Françaises from the Cheikh Anta Diop University, formerly known as the University of Dakar, Senegal in 1976, a B. A. (Hons) with a Diploma in Education from the University of Cape Coast in 1977 and Masters and Doctorate degrees from York University in Toronto, Canada in 1980 and 1986 respectively.
The Cape Coast-born academic icon was born on the 22nd of November, 1951. She is a grandmother and mother of three.
