Prof. Abigail Odozi Ogwezzy, Member
Abigail Odozi Ogwezzy is a professor of Mass Communication, a Chevening scholar with many academic and professional laurels. Her teaching and research over the past twenty years were deepened and made manifest with streams of scholarships and grants for research, fellowships and conferences, both local and international. She holds membership and fellowship in various sectoral and professional bodies.
She began her career as an academic in the Department of Mass communication, University of Lagos in 2001 as Lecturer II and rose to the rank of a Professor in 2016. At different times, she had served as Head of Department.
Prior to this, she has had journalism, advertising and banking experiences in the 1990s before joining the academia where she has her passion.
She had worked as a news reporter in a television station; client service executive in an advertising agency; and corporate communication officer in a leading financial institution. Furthermore, she has served on the Editorial Boards of Nigerian frontline dailies for about 10 years. Also, she has over two decades field experience in development having been consulting for several bilateral and multilateral agencies; and non-governmental organisations on project basis. Her career trajectory has taken her to five continents.
Her work experience reveals versatility and covers many areas of human endeavour. Indeed, she has a reputable track record of work experience, a sure reservoir to gain from immensely
She has worked on multi-sector projects and with a number of multilateral and bilateral agencies ranging from Special Projects and Special Service Agreements (SSAs) to short term consultancies as a master trainer, partner, external collaborator, expert and technical adviser on Strategic Communication, Social and Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC), Gender, Media and Public Relations (PR).
Presently, she is the Technical Adviser to ‘The Collaborative Media Project’ – Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability Project, a multi-level intervention for media independence and government accountability funded by MacArthur and initiated & administered by Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).
She holds a BA (Linguistics), PGD and MSc (Mass Communication) MA (Gender and Development); and PhD (Communication Arts). Her areas of specialization are development communication, public relations, and advertising; with interest in the application of strategic communication to development, especially, the gender dimension.
As part of her community service, she engages in various professional and sectoral support programmes such as speaking engagements and resource person at workshops, member of jury or chair of panels for journalism and communication activities. Similarly, at various times, she has been a reviewer of several technical documents; chair, keynote/guest speaker, discussant and panellists at various fora; and producer of several development documentaries.
In 2018, she was on staff exchange programme to Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, United Kingdom under Erasmus+ International staff Mobility, a project funded by European Union. She is also British Chevening Scholar; Laureate, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Washington, DC; African Scholar Laureate, African Association of Political Science, (AAPS)/ Harry Frank Guggenheim (HFG) Foundation; and Laureate, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). She also has streams of scholarships and grants to her credit. She won grants to attend 2ndWomen Deliver global conference held in Washington DC, USA; and 3rdWomen Deliver global conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) Conference held in Brazil; and ELF Petroleum Coy Ltd, Secondary School Scholarship.
In her school days as an undergraduate, she was the Best Graduating Student, Department of Linguistics, University of Port Harcourt (University Convocation Merit Award), 1992. Again, she was Future Creative Leaders Academy (FCLA) Best Teacher of the year in 2018, a competition, sponsored by the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON). She is also a Member, Superbrands Nigeria Council; Member, Board of Trustees, International Press Institute (IPI), Nigerian Chapter; and Vice-Chairperson, Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of Saint Gregory’s College, Lagos from July 2017 to July 2022. She is a visiting member of The Guardian editorial board and a member of the editorial boards of journals of media and communication studies.
In the advancement of teaching and research, she has published articles and books locally and internationally and has been an external examiner at the undergraduate and post graduate levels to various universities; and attended various local and international conferences.
In all her accomplishments, she has consistently demonstrated enviable hard work, ingenuity and a strong commitment to being her best in assigned task.