Mavis Odei Boateng

Research Associate, Global Health and Humanitarianism

Research Team

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Dr. Mavis Odei Boateng is a social work scholar and practitioner with extensive international experience spanning Africa and North America. She has lived and worked across Ghana, the United States, and Canada, contributing in both leadership and professional roles across diverse institutional and community settings. As a generalist social worker and researcher, her practice and research interests include youth development, individual and family counselling, community engagement, intimate partner violence, project management, and qualitative research.

Dr. Odei Boateng holds a PhD in Social Work and a Master of Social Work from the University of Windsor (Canada), a Social Service Worker Diploma from Fanshawe College (Canada), and both a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from the University of Ghana. Her multidisciplinary and transnational educational background informs her commitment to addressing complex social challenges through culturally responsive and evidence-based approaches.

She has contributed to institutional equity and community-focused programming through her work with the Office of Human Rights, Equity and Accessibility at the University of Windsor, where she strengthened her expertise in program development and community engagement. At the CommUnity Partnership, she worked closely with diverse and marginalized populations facing barriers to social services, poverty, food insecurity, and mental health challenges.

Her professional experience also includes roles in the United States as a Counselor at the Cayuga Rehabilitation Centre and as a Research Assistant at Cornell University. During her graduate training, she held several student leadership roles, serving as a representative on university, faculty, and departmental committees. She also co-founded the MSW Peer Mentorship Program within the School of Social Work.

More recently, Dr. Odei Boateng served as Scholar-in-Residence and Academic Director of the Summer School at the Centre for Refugee Studies, York University. In this role, she co-developed annual curricula, oversaw program administration, led hiring processes, and supervised undergraduate and graduate student interns.

Grounded in a strengths-based perspective, Dr. Odei Boateng integrates her lived experience with her academic and professional training to advance equity, inclusion, and social justice. Her work reflects a sustained commitment to empowering individuals and communities while contributing to scholarly and applied knowledge in social work.

Research Keywords

Resource Insecurity; Development and measurement of peer mentoring processes in higher education

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