As WUN Chair, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, brings a combination of scholarly achievement, institutional leadership, and a deep commitment to universities’ role in addressing global challenges.
She is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, leading one of Africa’s most respected and influential universities and bridging the continent’s intellectual traditions with the global research community. Her appointment as Chair of WUN reflects the diversity of the Network’s membership and its longstanding commitment to global university collaboration.
Professor Amfo has consistently argued that no institution can address global challenges alone and that international partnerships are essential to generating knowledge, nurturing talent and the developing solutions required for an interconnected world.
“WUN is an engine for global research collaboration. I am looking forward to working with the new Executive Director, Professor Dawn Freshwater, to revamp our collaborations to achieve greater impact.”
“One of our Network’s strengths is its Global North-Global South connectedness. This ensures that our research collaborations reflect the full breadth of global expertise and experience.”
Professor Amfo’s leadership highlights WUN’s vision of universities not simply as centres of knowledge creation but as globally connected institutions capable of working together to address the complex challenges facing humanity. WUN research aims to impact the lives and livelihoods of citizens in communities around the world.
As a linguist, Professor Amfo has explored ways in which language shapes social interaction, public discourse and human understanding. This has shaped her belief in the power of universities as contributors to social progress, economic development and international cooperation.
This collective contribution from universities is now urgent. “We must work together for maximum impact as our communities confront challenges that collaborative research must solve.”
Professor Amfo acknowledges outgoing Chair, Professor Bill Flanagan, Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of Alberta, who will continue as Deputy Chair.