Prof. Mrs. Marie Afua Baah Bakah is the Head of Professional Development and a Senior Lecturer responsible for planning professional development programmes for educational advancement in West Africa. She also currently lectures postgraduate students in Curriculum Design and Innovation, Educational Administration and Professional Development in Education at the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration, a UNESCO Category II Centre of Excellence at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana
Prof. Mrs. Bakah holds a PhD degree in Curriculum Design from the University of Twente, Enschede in the Netherlands and an M.Sc. (Educational Science and Technology) also from the University of Twente, Enschede-The Netherlands. She has also obtained an MPhil (Educational Administration) and a BEd (Foundations) degree from the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana.
Prof. Mrs. Bakah has considerable experience in educational administration as she worked for four (4) years as an Assistant Registrar in UCC specifically at the Documentation Unit, Human Resource Division and at the Centre for International Education. She was also once the headmistress of Light of the World School Complex in Accra. Dr. Mrs. Bakah also served as an exchange staff at the Padnos International Center at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, USA. She is currently an external examiner to four (4) public and private universities in Ghana.
Prof. Mrs. Bakah has acquired very rich and useful experiences as Colleges of Education Improvement Advisor and Facilitator of the DfID/UK Funded Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL) Project, Ghana.
Prof. Mrs. Bakah’s research interests lay in curriculum leadership in education, staff professional development, teachers' collaborative curriculum design and development and educational management. She has attended and presented papers at a number of local and international conferences and conducted research for over a decade, leading to the publication of books and articles in local and international journals. Notable most recent ones are: Occupational stress and job performance: A study of the senior administrative staff at the University of Cape Coast Central Administration. Ghana Journal of Higher Education, 6, 48- 65; Internal quality assurance strategies in Colleges of Education in Ghana: An institutional theory perspective. Journal of Educational Planning and Administration, XXXIII (2), 123-136; Perceptions of University of Cape Coast distance education learners and tutors on the availability and adequacy of learner support services. Journal of Educational Management, 10 (1), 27-44; Pre-service teacher education by distance: Learners’ curriculum challenges in a private college of education in Ghana. Ghana Journal of Higher Education, 5, 39 – 63, among others.
Prof. Mrs. Bakah has served and continues to serve on various boards and committees within and outside the University of Cape Coast and is currently a member of some local and international professional bodies and associations. She is the Chief Examiner for Promotional Examination, the Coordinator of the Ph.D. thesis Seminar, An Examination Officer, an Academic Advisor, and the Sandwich Coordinator, all at IEPA. Also, she is a member of the Governing Board of the University Practice Senior High School, the Treasurer for the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UCC), and a Hall Tutor at the Kwame Nkrumah Hall, UCC.