Meet Adjoa Asamoah, the Ghanaian who served as an Advisor on Joe Biden’s team

The 77-year-old’s victory was projected on Saturday after his garnered votes crossed the required 270 electoral votes mark following a dramatic win in Pennsylvania.

One of the key players in Biden’s campaign team was Adjoa Asamoah, who served as the campaign’s National Advisor for Black Engagement.

Ajdoa Asamoah served as National Advisor for Black Engagement in Joe Biden's team Pulse Ghana

Ms. Asamoah was born to a Black American mother and a Ghanaian father, and says she has even visited Ghana in the past.

In an interview granted to Watch The Yard before the 2020 US Election, she disclosed that her role in Biden’s campaign team involved engaging the Black community.

She is passionate about empowering the black race and subscribes to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s approach to liberation.

“My father was born under colonization in what would become Ghana and retired as an Africana studies and political science professor. My mother was born in the Jim Crow south, and experienced racism on multiple fronts. Both were civically engaged, and I was born into the movement, with their lived experiences informing my career choices,” Ms. Asamoah told Watch The Yard.

Ajdoa Asamoah and Joe Biden Pulse Ghana

“By the age of nine, I had gone to the birthplace of both parents, and in witnessing Black people struggle in two different countries on two different continents, as unbelievable as I realize it sounds, I declared then I would dedicate my life to moving Black people forward.

“That has since taken on different forms. While attending Hopkins for high school, I taught African Studies to elementary school students in Summerbridge, testified at the state capital for the first time, and led my first issue campaign–refusing to refer to the school leader as headmaster. While in college, I opted to return to Ghana as an international student one semester to study African history and gain a better understanding of Kwame Nkrumah’s approach to liberation.

“While in undergrad at Temple, I challenged the university on plans to gentrify the community, served as (E?) chapter president, VP of the NAACP, and Treasurer of the African Student Union, landing myself a university presidential appointment to the University Affirmative Action Committee.”

In the same interview, she revealed that she holds three degrees in psychology, focusing on human behaviour.

“I was a practising therapist and cofounder of a mental health clinic in Philly, and also consulted in education to address the need to create positive school climates and culturally competent approaches to educating students,” she said.

“With a desire to dismantle the school-to-prison-pipeline, I decided to attend GW to do my doctoral work, and like what happens to so many people who encounter DC, I found myself surrounded by problems warranting fixing. I had ideas, and I was vocal. I was tapped to serve as the mayor’s policy advisor managing the “equity” portfolio, subsequently saw a need to mobilize our people around many issues externally, and was ultimately appointed to the Commission on African American Affairs, and I was appointed to the State Title I Committee of Practitioners–where I serve as chair of the 4th consecutive year.”

She added: “I have served as adjunct faculty, teaching African American Psychology: The Psychology of the Black Experience, and with the ability to galvanize people around policies, coupled with an ability to raise money, politicians started asking me to consult for them, and I have leveraged expertise in cultural intelligence and behavioural psychology to create winning campaigns.

“As a mover of policy and culture, evidenced by the legislative victories I spearheaded to codify the nation’s first Office on African American Affairs and introduce and pass the groundbreaking anti-hair discrimination CROWN Act, I mobilize leaders and communities for social change and collective political action.”

Following his victory, Biden is set to become America’s 46^th President, while Kamala Harris will become the first woman to Vice President.