Ebenezer Kofi Howard

Prof. Ebenezer Kofi Howard is an associate professor in textiles at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). He had his basic school education at St. Lawrence School, Cape Coast in the Central Region from 1981 to 1990. He then proceeded to Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast for his secondary school education from 1991 to 1994 after which he entered into KNUST to pursue BA Industrial Art, Textiles Option (1997-2001), MA Art Education (2003-2005), MFA Textile Design (2005-2008) and PhD Art Education with research focus in Textiles (2008-2014).Prof Kofi Howard was appointed Senior Technician in 2002 in the Department of Industrial Art, KNUST. He was promoted to the rank of principal technician in 2006, appointed lecturer in 2009, promoted to Senior Lecturer rank in 2014 and rose to the rank of associate professor in 2019.  Since his appointment as a lecturer in the Department of Industrial Art, Prof Kofi Howard has served and continue to serve the university in diverse ways and capacities on both statutory and non-statutory committees and boards. He has served as chairperson and a member on various departmental, faculty, college and university boards and committees. He has been very instrumental in programme development, review and accreditation processes at all levels in the university. His tenure as the HOD in 2015 to 2017 saw the Department of Industrial Art through a significant strategic programme review and expansion exercise which resulted in development of market/demand-driven academic programmes with high students’ enrolment levels. Again, he has supervised a number of MFA, MPhil and PhD theses and mentored newly appointed staff in promoting quality teaching, research and innovations within the Faculty of Art and beyond.  His passion for staff development, mentorship and promotion cannot be overemphasized.These notwithstanding, Prof Howard has rendered significant technical and consultancy services to the university, national and international communities in the area of cloth design, grants and research projects in textiles and fashion. He has served and continue to serve as an external examiner and moderator for National Board for Professional and Technical Examinations (NABPTEX) for Polytechnics and Technical Universities across the country. He has also served as chairperson and panel member for National Accreditation Board (NAB) now Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) for programme and institutional accreditation and reaccreditation across the country. His services are extend beyond programme review and accreditation to assessment of senior members for promotion for both public and private universities. He is an external examiner for PhD programmes of the University of Ghana (UG) and the University of Education (UEW). He has also rendered significant services to professional bodies, public and private institutions where he serves as an executive or board member. He is also a reviewer to a number of reputable local and international refereed and peer-reviewed journals. He has also played a major role in both local and international conferences as a reviewer for textiles, fashion and art education conference papers. Again, he has been a facilitator and consultant to organisations and institutions of higher learning on textiles and fashion related issues at both national and international levels.His research broadly focuses on sustainable development of Textiles and Apparel industry with specific reference to design thinking and innovation, eco-friendly production technologies, challenges and prospects of the textile and fashion industries. Global textiles trade policies and trends which are key indicators in today’s competitive global textiles and apparel markets are the drivers of his research. He also conducts studio-based research in textile art and design and currently has to his credit over fifty peer reviewed and refereed research articles in credible journals.