Speaker/Mentor Bios
My name is Elliot Damasah, a Humanities Computing graduate student at University of Alberta. Currently, I am in Edmonton, Alberta. My home country is Ghana, a West African country that shares border to the south with the Gulf of Guinea and on the east, west, and north with Togo, Cote d'ivore, Burkina Faso respectively. I earned my first degree in Information Studies and Philosophy at the University of Ghana. With a few adjustments, I diverted into computer networking and worked as a network engineer for three years, while at the same time serving as a project coordinator.
Given my background, mainly as a person from the global south, I am of the opinion that my contributions will be valuable to this project as my many years in Ghana have endowed with indigenous knowledge about climate change. e.g, what does the senior high school student at Ada Foah-- a rural area in the Greater Accra region of Ghana -- think about climate change? As such, my experience can be shared with students and other members of this platform.
I believe in collaborative programs for many reasons, one of which is the opportunity it offers a team to be as exhaustive as possible when dealing with issues. Thus, when large number of people are discussing an issue(s) a much thorough solution or approach is realized. Mostly, this is achieved by synthesizing diverse opinions of people from all corners of the world. As a result, the likelihood for arriving at workably effective decision despite occasional absence of consensus is highly likely. It is among the many reasons why I am highly optimistic about the success of this program.
I am delighted to be a part of this program and I look forward to sharing my experience and learning from others.