Opara, Jacinta

Born in Southern Nigeria, Professor Jacinta A. Opara, a leading international environmental scholar, scientist, educator, health researcher, consultant and development activist with the combined power of management and human rights is a full-ranked Professor of Environmental Health, Population and Management at Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at Kampala International University(KIU), Kampala-Uganda; Chairman of Governing Council of the Institute of Policy Management Development; Professor and Dean, Institute of Environmental Health at Ballsbridge University, Dominican Republic and Visiting Professor of Biodiversity at Department of Environmental Sciences, Laikipia University, Nyahururu-Kenya. She received MSc and PhD Magna Cum Laude from Universidad Central de Nicaragua(UCN) and did postgraduate studies at Akershus University, Lillestrom-Norway. She was trained as a teacher at University of Ibadan and University of Nigeria before proceeding for graduate degrees at Rivers State University of Science and Technology and the University of Port Harcourt. Professor Opara began her career in 1996 as a Science Teacher(Biology) at College of the Immaculate Conception(CIC), Enugu State-Nigeria under National Youths Service Scheme(NYSC). Since the 1990s, Professor Opara has held teaching, research and consulting experiences across Africa, America, Europe and Asia. She held teaching and research appointment as an Associate Professor and Director, Centre for Environmental Education at the School of Environmental Studies, Universidad Azteca, Chalco-Mexico; Visiting Professor, Department of Biology, College of Natural and Applied Sciences, Kwararafa University, Wukari-Taraba State, Nigeria; Visiting Professor at Department of Science Education at Sule Lamido University(SLU), Kafin Hausa, Jigawa State, Nigeria; briefly as a Professor and Chair of Environmental Management and Toxicology at Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Basic and Applied Sciences, Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State, Nigeria as well as Academic Member(Visiting Professor), on joint appointment in the Department of Environmental Sciences  and Department of Education at Athens Institute for Education and Research, Athens-Greece. Professor Opara is President of African Association for Teaching and Learning; founding Co-Executive Director, Center for Environment and Community Development; founding President, Association of Women in Education and serves on the Board/Governing Council of Mediterranean Center for Social and Educational Research, Rome-Italy; Development Africa Consortium amongst other institutions and agencies including non-governmental organizations (NGOs). She is a Fellow of Institute of Management Consultants; Fellow of African Scientific Institute; Fellow of the Institute of Policy Management Development; Fellow of the Board of Quality Standards and Fellow of Chartered Institute of Administration. Over the years she has taught several courses at undergraduate, Masters, and Ph.D levels. She has also successfully supervised many ground-breaking undergraduate, Masters, and Ph.D dissertations/theses. Professor Opara has worked on a number of international projects, partnership initiatives and human capacity-building programmes with a wide range of stakeholders including several international conferences, seminars and workshops. She coordinated the Publication Project of the Nigeria´s 50 Years Anniversary. She is founding Editor of African Journal of Environmental Studies; Journal of Women Studies and Research and serves on the Editorial Board of over 40 international journals including ScienceRise(Ukraine); GeoTropico(Columbia), MJSS(Italy) and TechnoLearn(India). She has received several awards, fellowships and grants including the Erasmus Mundus of the European Commission, Brussels-Belgium and the prestigious IATEL Award for Academic Excellence in 2015.She maintains consulting status with several local and international agencies in the areas of environment, health, gender, human rights, peace and security, sexuality, education and community development. Professor Opara is a member of several academic and professional bodies amongst them include the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law(CEL); IUCN Commission on Environmental Education(CEC);Association of Women in Development(AWID); Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria(TRCN); International Association for Scientific Knowledge (IASK);African Network on Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements (ANEW); International Action Network on Small Arms(IANSA); International Association for the Study of the Commons(IASC) and African Society for the Scientific Research (ASSR).She is a Fellow of the African Sexuality Leadership Development funded by Ford Foundation and a Delegate/Resource Person/Consultant of the  2008 UN World Women´s Day of the Women International League on Peace and Freedom(WILPF),Geneva-Switzerland; United Nations PANAFCON Summit on Water, Sanitation and Human Settlement, Addis Ababa-Ethiopia; 2004 UN World Habitat Day(UNHABITAT), Nairobi-Kenya; UNU-EHS Project on Environment, Forced Migration and Social Vulnerability, Bonn-Germany; UNU-WIDER Project on Country Role Models, Helsinki-Finland and the 2008 Women`s World in Madrid-Spain. Professor Opara has visited over 30 countries. She has over 150 publications and is  married with children.