Esmeranda has dedicated her academic career to advancing knowledge through research, teaching and collaboration. She has vast experience in macro-level social policy practice which she brings to bear in her teaching, research, community development and policy engagement. Her research interest, while primarily focusing on child and family welfare, also includes gender and social protection issues. Her goal in the promotion of knowledge is to contribute to the limited literature on child and family welfare, and social protection issues in Ghana. Using mainly qualitative methods, her research highlights, amongst others, challenges to the best outcomes for at-risk children and other vulnerable groups in Ghana and suggests solutions for effective social work practice, and social policy and programme implementation. Her research output is published in leading international peer-reviewed journals including Child & Family Social Work, Journal of Child & Family Studies, Family Relations, Children & Youth Services Review, Research on Social Work Practice and Children & Societies.

Her service to the University is varied, including quality assurance issues and the provision of an enabling environment for students. She is the Vice-Dean of the International Programmes Office and has been the Head of the Department of Sociology and Social Work since 1^st November 2022.

Esmeranda has been involved in several research activities including:

1. Mapping unequal accessibility to socioeconomic and cultural opportunities in informal urban settlements across two Sub-Sahara African Cities [Project ID: EP-2021-MAC-03] Co-Investigator (Ghana)(January – December 2022)
2. Combating CODVID-19 in Ghana using socio-pedagogical methods: Educational campaign through children’s arts. DAAD (Project ID: 57448165) follow up grant EUR 19,975. Co-Principal Investigator (Ghana), [November 2020 – December 2020]
3. Comparative Analysis of Combined Effects of Transport and Urban Morphology on Public Health in Two African Capitals. (EP-2019-MAC-05) - SEK 500 000. Co-Investigator (Ghana)(January 2020 – December 2020)
4. Educational Partnership in socio-pedagogical methods in social work towards improving the lives of Ghanaian children DAAD (Project ID: 57448165) - 133, 824.17 Euro – Co-Principal Investigator (Ghana)(January 2019 – December 2021)
5. Implementation of Bio-Rural Energy Scheme for Ghana GCRF Interdisciplinary Research Award (RIS 1066908) – £75,749 - Co-Investigator (Ghana)(September 2018 – July 2019)
6. Planning for Family Business Succession: A Study of Retail Businesses in Adum, Kumasi – Co-Investigator(1^st January – 30^th November 2017; Funding: 2^nd KNUST Research Fund call)
7. Victims of Sexual Abuse in Kumasi: Challenges and Coping Strategies – Principal Investigator (February 2016- January 2017; Funding: 1^stKNUST Research Fund call)

Before joining KNUST in 2012 as a lecturer, she held positions with the Centre for Research in Social Policy, Loughborough University, UK; Northern Ireland National Assembly and the defunct Ghana National Commission on Children.  She is a product of the University of Ghana and Queen's University, Belfast.