Prof (Mrs) Ivy Adwowa Efiefi Ekem (MB ChB, FWACP, FGCP) is the current Dean of the School of Medical Sciences (since 1st August 2018). She is an Associate Professor of Haematology. Prior to her appointment as Dean, she was the founding head of Department of Haematology of the same school. Ivy joined the University of Cape Coast as full time employee on February 1st 2016 and has since also served the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital as Consultant Haematologist.
Before joining the University of Cape Coast, Ivy Ekem was a faculty member at the University of Ghana Medical School and Consultant Haematologist, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital from April 1997 to January 2016. Whilst at the University of Ghana, she was the Head of Department of Haematology and the Director of the Ghana Institute of Clinical Genetics (Sickle Cell Clinic) for 11 years and following that, briefly served as the Deputy Medical Director of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
She has taught and continues to teach many undergraduate medical students as well as residents and other postgraduate students in haematology and other disciplines. She has supervised both MPhil and PhD theses. Her research work has mainly been in anaemia, sickle cell disease and haematological malignancies. She has presented scientific papers and published widely in her field of expertise, both nationally and internationally.
Prof Ivy Ekem is an immediate past vice president of the West African College of Physicians and current president of the Ghana Society of Haematology. She was an executive of the Danny Whyte Ivor Burford (DWIB) Leukaemia Trust, Ghana and a founding member of the Leukaemia Project Foundation of Ghana. She initiated and continues to support the full establishment of consultant haematology practices at the 37 Military Hospital and the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital and remains an avowed advocate for improved patient care. She currently serves on the boards of the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is married to Very Rev Prof John David Kwamena Ekem, vice president of Methodist University College Ghana and Kwesi Dickson-Gilbert Ansre Distinguished Professsor of Biblical Exegesis & Mother Tongue Hermeneutics, Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Accra, Ghana. They are blessed with five children and six grandchildren and they enjoy a vibrant family life.
Prof. Ivy Ekem has to her credit 31 publications in peer reviewed journals, 15 Chapters in books, a book co-authored with colleagues, five booklets, and 17 educational leaflets and articles.