By Hazel Scott/ASU

 

Alabama State University’s Department of Social Work is continuing its outreach to establish collaborative research and student engagement relationships worldwide.

With the support of the United States Embassy of Ghana and a Non-Government Organization (NGO), Dr. Denise Davis-Maye, chair of the Department of Social Work, traveled to Ghana, West Africa, to visit the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Ghana.

“My colleague, Dr. Tamara Bertrand-Jones (Florida State University), and I have been invited back to work with women colleagues at each academic institution on publishing and establishing research collaborations,” Davis-Maye said.

Davis-Maye noted that they hope to travel to Ghana in October to initiate the first of several collaborative in-person, virtual and hybrid events.

“We hope to enhance research capacity with the Ghana universities and continue to explore opportunities for collaborations and exchanges,” she said.

While in Ghana, Davis-Maye was introduced to social work faculty, deans and representatives of the Office of International Affairs, as well as leaders of the Heman Village in the Ashanti Region.

“The Heman leaders and I discussed establishing linkages between the community-embedded arts program of Heman and Central Alabama,” Davis-Maye pointed out. 

Global Outreach

In 2023, the United States Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board assigned Davis-Maye to a year-stint as a United States Ambassador’s Distinguished Scholar to Bahir Dar University, one of the largest universities in The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. 

The program’s goal, she said, is to strengthen Ethiopian universities’ capacity to teach and manage undergraduate and graduate programs and enhance research capacity within Ethiopia universities.

“My participation in this highly selective and competitive program hopefully benefited ASU and its students,” David-Maye added.