Elsie Effah Kaufmann
Ghanaian academic and biomedical engineer
Elsie A. B. Effah Kaufmann FGA, FBSE, FGhIE, PE (born 7 September 1969) is a Ghanaian academic, academic administrator, biomedical engineer and current host of the National Science and Maths Quiz.
Quotes
edit- Life is full of highs and lows; it’s a normal part of being alive.
- STEM is an excellent foundation. Don’t focus so much on the details at the beginning, rather about the skills you are acquiring in the process; logical thinking, critical thinking, analytical skills.
- "I Don’t Say No To Help ".[1]
- “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”. [2]
- "Ghanaians need to ditch mediocrity. I have observed that people take on responsibilities, looking for recognition, glory and remuneration, but never think about the work or the meaning of the commitment they have made"[3]
- "In order to get to the point where you can actually contribute meaningfully to decision-making, you should have invested in yourself."[4]
- I have to give a disclaimer to say that I have not been explicitly intimidated or discouraged; that’s probably because of my attitude, haha. I have chosen to be so focused on my work that I can’t see certain distractions.
- If you follow my path you will see that I have been a pioneer in most of things that I do. So when I start a project, I have a vision for it. And as you can imagine, I work with teams because I enjoy maximising the synergy that comes from individuals from different backgrounds. When assembling my teams, I give people chances, I give everyone the benefit of the doubt but I have unfortunately been disappointed in the past. I have worked with people who haven’t understood my vision sometimes, there are some who have worked hard to undermine my abilities. I don’t know if this has been because I was young or a woman!
- Truthfully, I have seen certain reactions because I am female. For example, a student comes to me with these amazing compliments about my work, the way I inspire them and how they are honoured to have me as their head of department. Only problem is they can’t tell their parents that their head of department is a woman! Their father will question how serious that engineering department is!
- There are also certain unwritten but unrealistic expectations. Like if you are a female head of department then you are expected to be motherly. So your review of whether you are doing a good job depends on your ability to be motherly in addition to doing the job described for you in your appointment letter.
- I have also had issues with my relationship! I was married, I am now divorced. Maybe part of it is about me being too focused and doing certain things which may not necessarily be healthy for a relationship.
- Overall, my idea has been to rise above all this! You know, once I know what my vision is, I tend to push all the negativity out of my way and keep moving forward. I choose to see my challenges as a normal part of life; something to learn from and make my way forward.
- The good thing is that I had been trained to be independent – one of the things I thank my parents for – so leaving home for the UK wasn’t such a challenge for me. But now adjusting to a new environment – winter time for example – was the problem. I had also been used to a certain way of teaching, you know the African way, haha! We don’t ask questions because whatever the teacher tells us is the solid truth.
- Now here I was in a class full of interactions between teachers and students. In this school critical thinking was a requirement, we were supposed to have discussions on some of the most controversial topics. I had to find ways of forming an opinion and engage in the discussions because I took the idea serious that I was representing my country! My presence there had to matter.
- I remember for the first time in a science class I had a chance to design my own experiment as opposed to following instructions from a teacher. All this was challenging to me at first but I adjusted pretty well. By the time I was leaving, my thinking was completely different from what it was when I had just joined.
- Haha, you know I recently got a chance to speak to a group of students who invited me to their session and my title was about sustainable success. I asked them what they considered successful. Winnie, I have received many awards and many people know me for the awards but all my awards have been received because of things I did for other people; I have never received an award for anything I have done for myself! So to me success is about your contribution to others; the sacrifices you make to make life better for others.
- In 2010 I received the best teacher award for sciences at my university – University of Ghana. This award was for the work I had done to help establish engineering plus the activities I do in my classes. Each of my classes has a course project because I want to change the narrative from just theoretical exposure in class to something more practical for my students. So my students know me for asking them to look for problems in their societies and come to class with them. They know that I don’t have all the solutions but I have a lot of experience; so if your solution is not feasible, I have the ability to point that out and give you suggestions on how to make it work.
- Since 2017, I have been receiving all kinds of awards every year, haha. In 2017 itself I received the Impact Africa Summit award for education in Ghana; I am the Laureate for Ghana in education. It again has to do with my attitude towards promoting education in Ghana.
- I am also the host for a science quiz program called the National Science and Math Quiz, for secondary schools in Ghana. You will be amazed at what happens in this program, haha. So this is a month-long televised Science competition where all schools come together to find out who wins for that year. The whole country comes to a stand-still, everybody is watching because everyone is affiliated in one way or another to a school. My purpose here is to make people understand that you don’t have to be a science student to enjoy sciences. The applications of science are reachable and everywhere around us.
- In 2011, I was a fellow of the International Women’s Forum Leadership program – the leadership foundation. I guess my application for this was strong because some of the activities I have done in education. This allowed me to go back to school – Harvard Business School and INSEAD, executive education programs. This was another opportunity for me to build my leadership skills and strengthen my ability to do the things I have been able to do and are still doing.
- I also love travelling. Before the pandemic, I would get a chance, maybe once a year, to visit a place I have never been to. Even my conferences were opportunities to explore, haha.
- I like reading, a lot! I read anything, and everything. I also like listening to classical music. I find joy in catching up with my friends and classmates from all over the world.
