Mame Yaa Ankoma-Mensa
Mame Yaa Ankoma-Mensa joined the Daemen College Athletic Department this year as the student-athlete success and community engagement coordinator. In this role, she coordinates and assists with student-athlete development and community engagement initiatives for Daemen Athletics.
Ankoma-Mensa comes to Daemen from the teaching field, having most recently served as a second and third grade teacher at Lawrence Wesley Education Center in Cat Lake, Ont. Prior to this, she held teaching positions at I.S.M. International Academy in Ecuador and at Buffalo’s Charter School for Applied Technologies. She also worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the office for Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in developing “Game Changers,” a program that facilitates basketball activities for children.
Ankoma-Mensa earned a master’s degree in literacy and a bachelor’s degree in education, both from Medaille College, where as an undergraduate she participated on the Mavericks’ intercollegiate athletic teams for soccer, basketball and tennis. After graduating, she served her alma mater as a graduate assistant in the college’s Athletic Department and as graduate residence coordinator in the Office of Residence Life.
In addition to her degrees, she holds advanced certification in TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) from D’Youville College and additional qualification in junior/intermediate history from Queen’s University.
Outside Daemen, Ankoma-Mensa coaches at basketball camps and assists with the King Fee Classic, a charitable basketball tournament that raises funds for cancer research. Born in Botswana to Ghanaian parents, Ankoma-Mensa moved to Canada with her family when she was age 1.