Dr. (Mrs) Bernice Wadei is currently a Research Fellow with the Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. She holds a PhD in Geography and Rural Development with specialization in Gender and Development from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. She has a Master of Science Degree in Development Management from University of Agder, Norway. Her recent research focuses on how women’s economic empowerment and capacity building has influenced resources and power redistribution and the implications on power dynamics within the households and livelihood sustainability. She has also investigated the obstacles to the realization of gender justice in Ghana. Bernice has experience in rural community education and sensitization and together with other researchers, successfully carried out a Farmer-Field School intervention, aimed at ending time poverty among female farmers in the Tolon and Savelugu Districts in Northern Ghana.

Prior to joining BIRD, Bernice was a Research Scientist (Gender Officer) with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Savanna Agricultural Research Institute at Nyanpala, Tamale. Among other things, Bernice designed and facilitated gender-based training for project beneficiaries and staff. She also provided expertise for mainstreaming gender into programs and activities. She served as the gender consultant on some projects.

Bernice has also trained with the Ghana Military Academy and was commissioned into the Ghana Armed Forces in October 2014 as the Overall Best Commissioning Naval Officer. She has qualifications in Standard Military Training, Regular Military Career Course and Advanced Naval Officers Training. She worked with the Ghana Navy as a supply and logistics Officer until July 2016 when she resigned from her commission to pursue her PhD.

Bernice has worked as a Course Facilitator at the Institute of Distance Learning, KNUST, and as a Graduate Assistant at the Department of Geography and Rural Development, KNUST. She has also been a Teaching and Research Assistant at the same Department.

Her current research interests include Women and Poverty, Rural Livelihoods Sustainability, Women and Agriculture, and Gender and Household Relations. Dr. (Mrs) Bernice Wadei is competent in designing and executing quantitative and qualitative research projects and works well both independently and as part of a multi-disciplinary team. She is well disciplined, enthusiastic and a perpetual optimist who sees an opportunity in every challenge.