USF World News
Partnership with University of Ghana Brings Scholars to USF
Dr. Roger Brindley and Dr. Kiki Caruson of USF World meet with the two visiting scholars from Ghana: Dr. Frances Baaba da-Costa Vroom and Dr. Justice Aheto.
September 24, 2019
The University of South Florida (USF) has a long history of engagement with Ghana, including a formal partnership with the University of Ghana (UG). In 2016, UG received funding from the Carnegie Corporation for the “Next Generation of Academics in Africa” initiative. The program is designed to contribute to the attainment of Ph.D. holders among the UG faculty, improve doctoral training at UG, and enhance the quality and volume of research outputs from exceptional junior faculty.
High achieving faculty are competitively selected for short-term research sabbaticals to complete the writing stage of their dissertations during a three-month stay at USF. Each Scholar is connected with a USF faculty collaborator while working on specific research projects.
In return, USF extends its global impact and benefits from the wealth of knowledge the scholars bring to campus life as well as the diversity of perspectives present among them. The exchange of ideas has led to research collaborations between USF faculty and Ghana Scholars that transcend the Scholars’ stay at USF.
This past summer, USF had the honor of hosting two UG faculty members: Dr. Frances Baaba da-Costa Vroom and Dr. Justice Aheto.
Dr. Frances Baaba da-Costa Vroom
Dr. Frances Baaba da-Costa Vroom received her doctorate in Public Health from UG in July 2017. She has been teaching within the university’s Department of Biostatistics for nearly nine years, dating back to January 2011.
Dr. da-Costa Vroom’s passion for global health stems from her research interests, which include mobile health, health information security, and workflow and process engineering.
Based on her time researching at USF, Dr. da-Costa Vroom believes the acceptance of technology should be examined more thoroughly. “I believe there’s a lot more I can explore in terms of technology acceptance back home in Ghana,” Dr. da-Costa Vroom said. “I’m looking forward to doing more research in that area.”
Baaba traveled to USF with two main objectives, finish papers and network with colleagues to possible start collaborations.
“I learned about other tools that I wasn’t planning on using. I’ve learned a lot professionally, intellectually, and I’ve made new friends along the way,” she said.
Dr. Justice Aheto
Dr. Justice Aheto’s work focuses on both the development of novel statistical models and their applications to substantial real-world problems. Despite being young in his career field, he is very focused on developing strong research foundations that will ensure his future research successes.
With over eight years of experience working with statistical software packages, Dr. Aheto’s interests in the field include malnutrition, malaria, hypertension, cancer, asthma, and diabetes.
He spent three months working on his post-doctoral training at USF over the summer.