Mavis Essandoh (Dr.)

She holds a Bachelor of Arts, Graduate Diploma and Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degrees from the University of Ghana, Legon. She also holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from the Deakin University in Australia. She is an Accredited Member of the Institute of Public Relations Ghana and was a council member of the Institute in charge of Student Chapter coordination from 2009 to 2010.

Prior to her appointment as a Faculty Member of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), she had worked at all levels of Public Relations: Officer, Manager, Public Relations and Communications Expert (PRCE) as well as a Consultant. She has over twenty years of PR professional experience working in the public, private and quasi-public institutions in Ghana. She has organized media and communication as well as events management training programmes for certain key local and international organizations, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).  She has also helped to set up PR organizations for certain organizations and institutions (Takoradi Polytechnic, University of Professional Studies and the Students’ Loan Trust Fund), and helped to revamp others where necessary. 

Dr. Essandoh was the founding Dean of the Faculty of PR, Advertising and Marketing when the faculty was set up in 2011. Prior to that, she was the Head of the PR department from 2009 to 2011. This is the second time she has been appointed as an Acting Dean with oversight responsibilities over the PR Department and the Advertising and Marketing Department, a feat she also chalked between 2009 and 2011, when she was substantive Head of the PR department and Acting Dean of the Faculty. She has supervised over a hundred students’ theses and dissertations at the Diploma, Bachelors and Masters level She has been a member of several committees of the Institute and has chaired a few of them. She is also known to have developed courses for the Master of Arts in PR and revamped the Diploma and Undergraduate courses of the faculty and is credited with introducing new and industry – focused courses to meet the needs of industry and the exigencies of the time.   

Dr. Essandoh is also an advocate of community radio and democratization in Ghana. She has researched on this genre of broadcasting and has attended local and international conferences on community radio and media legislation. Dr. Essandoh has also attended conferences of the International PR Association in the USA.