Supporting Women Scientists
Tags: World Science Day, Women, Mentorship, STEM, Statistics

Tinuke Adebanji leads workshops for mid-career women scientists who seek to advance their careers through USAID’s Accelerating Local Potential program at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis (KNUST-LISA). The workshops teach them skills that will help them advance — data management, statistical analysis, and leadership skills. Tinuke is also the coordinator of KNUST-LISA. No one is more surprised by this than Tinuke herself.

Growing up in Nigeria, she did not envision a career in statistics or academics. She gained admission to study Agriculture Engineering for her undergraduate studies, but opted for a statistics degree after realizing her flair for data. Following graduation, Tinuke secured a job in the private sector but had to quit after her daughter was born. However, this did not deter Tinuke from her dream of working in academics.

“I knew that when I was going to come back, I had to go to academics. It was like you don’t get this chance twice,” she said.

Tinuke encountered challenges when she began to pursue graduate studies. But that didn’t stop her. / Courtesy of Tinuke Adebanji

Two kids and about 10 years later, Tinuke returned to the classroom in pursuit of a master’s degree. She did not meet a particularly warm reception. She remembers an incident with a senior lecturer who had heard she had been out of class for about a decade.

She recalls him telling her in front of her entire class that she “had no business being in his class.”

Despite this disheartening beginning to her graduate studies, Tinuke persevered and went on to finish at the top of her class. She earned her Ph.D. in Statistics, and the respect of the professor who felt a woman her age should be at home with her family — not pursuing an advanced degree.

Tinuke couldn’t help but wonder how many other women in the system were like her but had dropped out of similar programs.

The Making of A Mentor

That led her to help create a new department of statistics at the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta in Nigeria. She then moved to KNUST in Ghana where she also facilitated the creation of a department of statistics and actuarial science, and eventually became the KNUST- LISA coordinator to advance both the field of statistics and women in STEM.

Statistics tends to be lumped in with mathematics and often “ treated like a standalone entity,” according to Tinuke, and that limits how it is viewed and used. Instead Tinuke believes that statistics is a “service center that supports research and helps people make better meaning of what they’re doing.” Her project at KNUST-LISA is doing just that.

Tinuke believes it is important for more women to work in STEM fields. / Courtesy Tinuke Adebanji

Recalling her own struggles in restarting her career after a decade gap, Tinuke sought to use KNUST-LISA to help women who were qualified but in need of better data analysis and leadership skills for progression in their careers.

She has led a series of workshops that uses statistics to help women advance in their careers. The first workshop was held with funding from USAID through LISA 2020 and offered free to 24 women who already report positive effects in their careers as a result. LISA 2020 trains the next generation of statisticians in USAID partner counties to apply statistics to global development challenges and collaborate with governments, NGOs, and other development actors to make informed decisions.

Tinuke believes mentoring makes a big difference. Her mentors had seen potential in her and pushed her when she may have stopped after receiving her master’s degree. And mentoring proved successful in keeping one of her talented students on track. This student almost dropped out of the undergraduate Actuarial Science program at the behest of her spiritual adviser but now works for Microsoft, as a programs manager.

Tinuke has seen the power of mentorship and encouragement in the young women she meets who are pursuing advanced degrees. / Courtesy Tinuke Adebanji

The LISA network also fosters mentorship and fellowship among its labs, giving participants the opportunity to learn and collaborate with statisticians in their region and beyond. Tinuke received mentorship from the University of Ibadan LISA (UI-LISA), where she studied as a postgraduate student in Nigeria when establishing KNUST-LISA. She and others have also written joint publications with their fellow members of the LISA network, connections who they would never have met otherwise.

Tinuke believes in mentoring the next generation of African scientists and so does USAID. / Courtesy Tinuke Adebanji

Ghanaians are gradually seeing statistics as an everyday tool, which was also one of Tinuke’s goals in establishing KNUST-LISA. “Statistics is something you have to come to love because you’ll either live with it or be miserable without it in your research,” she says.

When the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Ghana, the government set up teams to conduct modeling and interpreting the incidence data, with Tinuke serving on a team. These teams did some of the early research and analysis on climatic effects and advised on air-conditioning increasing the risk of spreading COVID-19.

“I really want to make a difference in people’s lives,” Tinuke says, “and give them a skill that they can use wherever they go.” And that’s exactly what she is doing.