Professor George Ladaah Openjuru, Ph.D.
Professor George Ladaah Openjuru is currently the Vice Chancellor and Professor of Education at Gulu University. He’s the African Educationist of the Year 2023 by the African Leadership Magazine.
He was formerly Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs at Gulu University and Dean School of Distance and Lifelong Learning, College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University. He was an Associate Professor of Adult and Community Education. His area of specialisation and research is adult literacy education, and Lifelong Learning. He holds a PhD, in Adult and Community Education with specific focus on adult literacy education from University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has published articles in the area of adult literacy education, lifelong learning, Higher Education, Community Based Participatory Action Research. As part of his university community engagement, George is active in supporting civil society organizations that are engaged in the promotion of adult education in Uganda and Chairperson of Uganda Adult Education Network (UgaAdEN). Partner in the UNESCO Chair on Social Responsibility in Higher Education and Community University Engagement. Coordinator UNESCO Chair of Lifelong Learning Youth and Work Gulu University. He is presently part of an East African Team working on the TESCEA/SPHEIR Project focusing on enhancing graduate employability for social change in East Africa. He has coordinated a number of projects in the area of adult literacy education, Entrepreneurship Literacies for non-literate out of school youths in Uganda, He was involved with youth entrepreneurship and employability training with many universities in Uganda and UK.
Prof Tsitsi Chataika is the Disability Inclusion Advisor at CBM Global Disability Inclusion (Zimbabwe). Previously, was at the University of Zimbabwe, Department of Educational Foundations as an Associate Professor of Inclusive Education and Disability Inclusion.
She is also a visiting Associate Professor at the ihuman Centre, University of Sheffield, and the University of Witwatersrand (Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology). Prof Chataika’s research interests revolve around disability and how it intersects with but not limited to education, development, policy, postcolonial theory, religion, culture, ethnicity, gender and social inclusion/cohesion. She has conducted several local and regional baselines, midterm and end term evaluations of inclusive education and disability inclusion programmes in Zimbabwe and Africa. She was also part of the team that developed the Africa Disability Protocol. She serves in various inter/national boards as a disability inclusion and inclusive education expert. Her many publications include ‘The Routledge Handbook of Disability Activism’, a 2019 Outstanding Routledge Global Award in the Social Sciences. It was also nominated as one of the 20 most influential books on activism in 2023 by Book Authority. Her latest publication, The Routledge Handbook in Postcolonial Disability Studies was published in March 2024.
Professor Alemayehu started his career as a primary regular school teacher (after completing a one-year teachers training program at Debrebirhan Teacher Training Institute) with three years’ experience in the former Shoa province and later on in special school for the deaf for nine years, in Addis Ababa.
He has also served for 4 years as a teacher trainer at the Adama Teachers College and Sebeta Center for Special Needs Education. In addition, he has worked as a curriculum expert and researcher at the Institute of Curriculum Development and Research (ICDR) and as a Head of Educational Programs and Teacher Education in the Ministry of Education. After joining Addis Ababa University College of Education in 2003, he has served as a lecturer and researcher, and currently as an associate professor. He had also been the Chair of the Department of Special Needs Education for five years. Area of teaching and research interests include, research methods, education of children with hearing impairment, learning disability, sign language, philosophy in special needs and inclusive education, CBR, education of gifted and talented children, early childhood education and development, teachers’ education and disability and society. He has participated actively in several research endeavors and published large number of articles dealing with Special Educational Needs.
Conference Convener & Chair
Dr. Patrick Ojok, Ph.D. (Conference Convener)
Patrick Ojok, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer and Dean of the Faculty of Special Needs & Rehabilitation at Kyambogo University, Uganda, and the former Head of the Department of Community & Disability Studies. He holds a courtesy appointment as Adjunct Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dr. Ojok’s research focuses on disability policy, inclusive education, inclusive employment, African perspectives on disability, and accessible technology. He has over 25 years of teaching, research, and senior leadership experience at primary, tertiary, and university levels. In 2017, he was the only head of department among 30 Deans selected from universities in Africa to participate in the DAAD sponsored International Dean’s course entitled Dialogue for Innovative Higher Education Strategies (DIES). Dr. Ojok has presented numerous conference papers and delivered keynote addresses at national, regional, and international forums. He authored Uganda’s combined 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Periodic Reports on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and was part of a team that developed the World Bank’s Disability Inclusive Education for Africa Program report. Dr. Ojok teaches disability studies and inclusive education courses at graduate and undergraduate levels.
Associate Professor Willy Ngaka, Ph.D. (Conference Chair)
Willy Ngaka, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Kyambogo University’s Department of Adult, Community and Lifelong Learning (DACoLL). He is a top-ranked professional in adult learning and education, with numerous awards, professional recognitions, and research grants.
Ngaka has extensive experience in leadership and management of higher educational institutions, including initiating the Kyambogo University Andragogy Lab (KUAL) and the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Makerere University in Uganda. His research focuses on qualitative and mixed-methods research, literacies, numeracies, and livelihood skills development. He has published extensively on adult learning and education in high-impact international journals, leveraging adult literacy to address socio-economic, cultural, and political issues. Ngaka has supervised numerous doctoral and master students’ research projects and has a broad academic background in public administration, management, project monitoring and evaluation, education, and social sciences. He is an eminent academic with an international and national social network, and is passionate about corporate social responsibility, evident in his membership in academic and corporate institutions both internationally and in Uganda.