A graduate of a “British-model” boarding school in Ghana, the “multi-lingualed” Dr. Codjoe completed all of his postsecondary education, including a PhD in International and Intercultural Education, in Canada.

So when he had a chance to come to Dalton State College nearly a decade ago, he jumped at the chance to move to the U. S., which he considers “symbol of multiculturalism.”

“The United States is a laboratory for diversity,” says Dr. Codjoe, who spends much of his workday involved with the traditional “institutional effectiveness” tasks associated with a college, which includes collecting data and information, dealing with retention and accreditation issues, and spearheading strategic planning for the institution. He compiles facts and figures about Dalton State students, faculty and student achievement. And he also spends much of his time conducting research on multicultural issues and frequently teaches Dalton State students enrolled in such classes as “Race and Ethnicity in America.”

“I guess you could say I’m sort of a ‘Jack of all Trades,’” he says, noting that because of the “diversity” of his day-to-day activities, he never gets bored with his job.

Next to teaching, which gives him an “invaluable opportunity to interact with students,” he finds that writing and reviewing articles for scholarly publications is one of the activities he enjoys most. In the recently released book, The African Diaspora in Canada, published by the University of Calgary Press, Dr. Codjoe has written a chapter on “Africa(ns) in the Canadian Educational System: An Analysis of Positionality and Knowledge Construction.” He also contributed an essay on the problems faced by Black students in Canada’s educational system in a sociology text, Inequality in Canada: A Reader on the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Class, published by Oxford University Press.

And he recently served as one of six scholars to review a new textbook on The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexual Orientation, published by McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

“I have always had an interest in diversity and international affairs,” says Dr. Codjoe, a native of Ghana who is conversant in three African languages, Akan, Adangbe, and Ga, is fluent in English, and has a working knowledge of French.

As a young man, he enjoyed “talking politics” with his late father, a former Ghanaian banker turned Canadian businessman. At one point, Dr. Codjoe, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Concordia University in Montreal and a master’s degree from Carlton University in Ottawa, both in International Affairs, considered a career as a foreign diplomat.

Instead, he went to work: first, for the Institutional Research department of Mt. Royal College in Calgary, the Canadian Federal Government, and later for the Alberta Government Department of Education in Edmonton, as a Planner and Policy Analyst for 13 years before coming to Dalton State in 1997.

While most of the research and writing he’s done to date has been on multicultural issues in Canada, he plans to do increasingly more research, and teaching, on those issues in the United States.

“The state wants all education majors to take a course in diversity, and by the fall of 2007, a three-hour credit course in diversity will be added to the required curriculum for teacher education at Dalton State,” he says. “I look forward to working with many of those students in the classroom.”