Executive Bio
Wil Agbenyikey, President and Co-Founder
Wilfred Agbenyikey is a Data Manager at the Framingham Heart Study, a project by National Institute of Health (NIH) and Boston University.
Wilfred has degrees in Agriculture (Bachelors, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) and Environmental Health Science (Master of Public Health, Yale University). He is currently pursuing his Doctorate (Sc.D) in Work Environment Policy – International Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts.
He has worked as a Research Associate at Charles River Laboratories developing and producing antigens as well as monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. He has also coordinated a NIDA sponsored HIV Testing and Counseling study from baseline to final follow-up stage on rehabilitating drug addicts at Midwestern Connecticut Council of Alcoholism.
Wilfred has devoted his leisure and career into providing the scientific basis for smoke-free air policies, work environment policies and exposure/risk assessment of environmental and psychosocial stressors. He is also an advocate for smoke-free public places and health promotion.
Wilfred in collaboration with Research & Development Division - Ghana Health Service, Johns Hopkins University - USA and Ghana Tourist Board and with funding from IDRC –RITC and FAMRI, was the Principal Investigator (PI) for the first ever research study assessing the extent of pollution caused by tobacco smoke and the personal exposures of nonsmokers working at both smoking and nonsmoking venues to secondhand smoke.
Wilfred’s current research focuses on assessing the policy implications of associations between psychosocial work conditions, social capital, cardiovascular diseases and smoking among Ghanaian workers. He is also actively pushing for the ban of smoking in public places in Ghana.
Richard Adusa-Poku
Vice President and Co-Founder
Director for Research & Youth Advocacy
Richard Adusa-Poku is an Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Specialist at Environmental Health and Engineering Inc., Needham, Massachusetts. Currently, Richard is primarily responsible for Environmental sustainability and safety management for health care, universities, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industry clients performing EHS gap analysis, exposure assessment, EHS policy and program development, and EHS training related to US federal and local regulatory compliance.
Richard received his Master of Science in Environmental and Occupational Health at Harvard University and Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Previously, Richard was the Industrial Hygienist at M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc., an aerospace and defense contractor for the US government. At M/A-COM Tech, he put in place drivers and metrics to surge environmental sustainability and safety performance and inculcated safety management into all upper level management.
He has also worked with the Industrial Hygiene Program at MIT-EHS office and conducted various occupational exposure assessment studies including noise exposure assessment on workers at Ground Services at MIT-Department of Facilities.
In collaboration with Wilfred and Research & Development Division - Ghana Health Service, Richard helped managed the first ever tobacco health research study in Ghana assessing the extent of pollution caused by tobacco smoke and the personal exposures of nonsmokers working at both smoking and nonsmoking venues to secondhand smoke.
Richard has researched on effects of dietary fish intake and serum vitamin C on risk of all-cause mortality or cardiac specific mortality using NHANES II mortality follow-up data. He has also conducted research examining the effect of organochlorine pesticides on water bodies in Laredo, Texas-Mexican border as well as farming communities in Ghana.
Richard has dedicated his leisure and career to promote environmental sustainability to reduce operating costs of businesses as well as occupational health advancement and is an avid advocate for tobacco ban in public places in Ghana.