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Ghana Meets Asheville Thanks to the Fulbright Program

A partnership that began in Ghana is now bringing global perspectives, academic collaboration, and cultural exchange to UNC Asheville.

By UNC Asheville

September 19^th, 2025

Not long ago, Cynthia Adinortey, a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, had never heard of Asheville, North Carolina. That changed in January 2024, when she met UNC Asheville Professor of Biology and Fulbright Scholar Jennifer Rhode Ward, then teaching as a visiting professor in the University of Cape Coast's College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences.

Ward encouraged her to apply for a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence. With the help of UNC Asheville Chair of Education Professor Tiece Ruffin—who served as UNC Asheville’s Fulbright Program Liaison since 2020—they developed a winning proposal. By August 2025, Adinortey was on a plane with her husband and two children, bound to make a new home in Asheville.

“We’re starting to realize this dream of teaching, making presentations, and engaging communities. And this is just the beginning,” Adinortey reflects.

Ward notes that the Scholar-in-Residence is very competitive. Only 26 institutions across the U.S. received the award this year. “UNC Asheville has a strong track record with the Fulbright organization,” said Ward. “Our selection is a testament to Tiece’s Fulbright experience and connections, Dr. Adinortey’s record, and our faculty’s commitment to the highest level of research and pedagogy, which we have demonstrated consistently year after year.”

UNC Asheville has twice been recognized by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs as a top-producing institution of Fulbright Scholars—in 2023–24 and 2015–16—thanks in large part to Ruffin’s dedication and the resources she provides faculty in her uncompensated liaison role.

Ruffin was also the first of the university’s Fulbright Scholars to work in Ghana. During her time at the University of Education, Winneba, she met Senior Lecturer Florence Akua Mensah, who later became a Fulbright African Research Scholar in Asheville for the Fall 2019 semester.

(L:R) UNC Asheville Professor of Biology and Fulbright Scholar Jennifer Rhode Ward, UNC Asheville Chair of Education Professor Tiece Ruffin, and Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology & Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Cynthia Adinortey

The Fulbright Experience

During her time in Ghana, Ward was part of a collaborative teaching exchange and, since her focus is on the genetics and demography of rare and non-native plants, she designed a curriculum around the University of Cape Coast’s Botanical Garden and made recommendations for the garden’s future.

Thanks to Fulbright’s structure, both she and Adinortey were able to bring their children and husbands, who are professors, overseas. Ward’s husband, UNC Asheville Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science Landon Ward, provided advice to the on-campus zoo at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. That’s how he met Adinortey’s husband, Professor of Biochemistry Michael Adinortey. They, too, launched a project together, but theirs was about snake venom. Ward calls this partnership “an added bonus” of the Fulbright program.

With both a Postgraduate Diploma in Education and a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Cynthia Adinortey is able to teach across multiple departments at UNC Asheville. Since the school doesn’t have an environmental microbiologist on staff, she filled that gap in the curriculum. She has a deep publication record and is a member of many professional organizations, including the American Society for Microbiology and Graduate Women International. With the latter, she worked on outreach initiatives around menstrual hygiene access, a major issue in Ghana. Also an advocate for women in science, through her outreach work in Asheville with schools and community organizations, she’s encouraging young women to pursue the subject. “Coming to Asheville is an opportunity to extend this work outside of Ghana,” she says.

Ghana Meets Asheville Thanks to the Fulbright Program

Learning Through Differences

“The Fulbright exchange is focused on sustained impact, continued collaboration, and international connections between two institutions,” Ruffin observes. “We are reciprocal. I think that’s the beauty. Students are getting the opportunity to have cross-cultural experiences and gain insights beyond their own perspective.” She says that of the students she taught in Ghana, five are teaching now in the U.S. “They tell me that having a professor from a different cultural background who understood a different dimension of the discipline was profound because it opened up their world-view outside the Ghanaian context.”

As instructors, Fulbright also illuminates differences and encourages growth. Both Ward and Adinortey were surprised by how different pedagogy is in their host countries. Ward, who does active learning and course-based research, was surprised by the formality of the classes, but also the enthusiasm of Cape Coast students, while Adinortey was inspired by the casual seating and energy of UNC Asheville.

“The classes here are lively,” Adinortey says. She also learned a lot by taking UNC Asheville’s orientation for new faculty. “Even though I had been teaching since 2017, I found it beneficial. It made me revise a few things that I knew, as far as the job of a lecturer is concerned. I have now taken an extra step to make my classes more interesting, more engaging, and I add group activities and let them discuss.”

She’s currently teaching Environmental Microbiology. During a discussion on the role of microorganisms in the fermentation of local foods, she shared a number of foods that are made from fermented corn and cassava in Ghana and asked students about local fermented foods. They told her about pickles and fermented tofu.

"In this way, I’m learning from them, and they’re also learning from me,” she says.

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Ghana Meets Asheville Thanks to the Fulbright Program

A partnership that began in Ghana is now bringing global perspectives, academic collaboration, and cultural exchange to UNC Asheville.

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