Accra, March 28, GNA – Madam Stephanie S. Sullivan, the United States Ambassador to Ghana, has inaugurated a five-member executive for the US Ghana Alumni Association (USGHAA) in Accra.
The all-female executives, which has Dr Hilda Mantebea Boye, as the President, will run the affairs of the Association for one year.
The rest of the executive members are: Madam Priscilla Zangina, General Secretary; Madam Mavis Owureku-Asare, Organising Secretary; Dr Matilda Payne Boakye-Ansah, Public Relations Secretary; and Madam Ferusah Wuniche Sakifu, Programmes and Projects Secretary.
The board is mandated with establishing a mission and vision for the association, revising the constitution and other regulatory documents, and setting up key posts and committees to re-establish the USGHAA as an independent, non-partisan organisation that represents its members across Ghana and strengthen the US-Ghana partnership.
The virtual event, which took place at the USGHAA maiden Conference, was attended by a group of distinguished Alumni including the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin and the immediate past Speaker of Parliament Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye (a Fulbright Fellow).
The USGHAA is a network of alumni of US State Department exchange programmes, including participants of Fulbright Scholarships and International Visitor Leadership Programme.
The USGHAA seeks to promote US-Ghana relations and develop the next generation of leaders in the US-Ghana relationship.
Madam Sullivan said: “USGHAA is a microcosm of Ghana, like a mosaic, with all the individual pieces coming together to form a magnificent masterpiece that represents our shared ideas of democratic peace and progress, respect for human rights and the rule of law, and inclusive economic prosperity”.
She said the election and subsequent inauguration of the USGHAA Board represented a new beginning for an Association that aimed to gather 3,000 Ghanaians Alumni of the exchange programmes by the US Department of State under a national umbrella.
The Ambassador, who hailed Nana Yaa Appiah, the immediate past President of USGHAA for her distinguished service to the Association, also presented an award to her.
Mr Bagbin said as members of USGHAA, they would help shape the future of Ghana and the US; adding that in politics, economics, the media and the sciences, the members continued to be torchbearers.
He urged members of the Alumni to brighten the corner wherever they found themselves and to keep on torching lives because accomplishment was a journey, not a destination.
Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, in a recorded video message to the conference, said coming together as an Association would enable them achieve a lot of things and therefore make more impact.
He said by having a strong Association they would be having a stronger voice in the future of the exchange programmes and how they could assist the exchange programmes to impact positively on the Ghanaian society.
Dr Boye expressed gratitude to members of USGHAA for the confidence reposed in her and other executive members, saying, “Our promise to you is dedicated service and inclusion to build a greater future together”.
Madam Liz Ategou, Cultural Affairs Officer of the US Embassy in Accra, said the US Embassy was committed to rebuilding, redesigning and renewing the USGHAA.
