I am an Associate Professor of Environmental and Nutritional Epidemiology at University of Cape Coast, Ghana, Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, and Vice-Dean of the School of Public Health. I lead a public health research group (AmegahLab; X handle: @AmegahLab) in the Department of Biomedical Sciences with our work at the interface of nutrition and air pollution health effects, and focused on maternal, perinatal and cardiovascular health outcomes. We leverage modern and robust epidemiological and statistical methods, and emerging data science techniques to investigate these relationships. I am particularly interested in understanding the biological mechanisms mediating air pollution exposure health effects and the ameliorating role of nutrition (vitamin D and antioxidant nutrients specifically), and recently established a birth cohort in the Cape Coast Metropolitan Area (CAMAC) to effectively pursue this research inquiry.
I lead the GhanaAQ and Breathe Accra projects (https://ghanaaq.org/; https://breatheaccra.org/) which has deployed a mixture of low cost sensors and reference grade monitors in Accra and other urban settlements of Ghana to bridge air quality data gaps, create public awareness of the air pollution problem for local action, and conduct epidemiologic research. I also focus on interrogating nutrition and air pollution policy issues in Sub-Saharan Africa with my work in this area gaining a lot of media attention and influencing public health policies in the region and beyond.
I am a member of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) and Nutrition Society UK, founding member of the AfriqAir Network, and senior collaborator of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) studies. I participated in the WHO expert meetings of the Global Platform on Air Quality and Health, and presently a member of the Exposure Working Group of the WHO Global Air Pollution and Health – Technical Advisory Group (GAPH-TAG). I was a member of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and African Union (AU) Integrated Assessment of Air Pollution and Climate Change for Sustainable Development in Africa and led the chapter on “Air quality and human health in Africa”. I am a renowned expert on air pollution and health in Africa with my views sought by both local and international media outlets on this and related issues. I was on the panel of a 2020 BBC World Service "The Evidence" programme dubbed “Air pollution – The silent killer” and was in 2023, profiled in Scientific American and Nature in an article titled “People Who Are Changing the Environment One Community at a Time”.
I serve on the editorial board of a number of reputable journals, namely, Journal of Health and Pollution (Deputy Editor), Public Health Nutrition (Associate Editor), Plos Global Public Health (Academic Editor), Medicine (Epidemiology section), Environmental Epidemiology, Environmental Health, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, Environmental Research: Health, and Scientific Reports
I have published widely in high impact factor medical and public health journals including the Lancet, Lancet Global Health, New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Bulletin of WHO, Environmental Health Perspectives, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and Environment International, and have over 60 publications with a Google H-index of 33.
I have over 18 years teaching experience at the University level and teaches courses in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Nutrition and Environmental Health