In the summer of 2016, Mame Yaa Ankoma-Mensa joined the Daemen College Athletic Department as the Student-Athlete Success and Community Engagement Coordinator. In this role, Ankoma-Mensa coordinates and assists with student-athlete development and the community engagement initiatives of Daemen Athletics. The position is funded in part by the NCAA Division II Ethnic Minority and Women's Internship Grant which
Daemen was awarded in the spring of 2016.
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, Ontario, Canada. She additionally held previous teaching positions at I.S.M. International Academy in Ecuador, and locally at the Charter School for Applied Technologies in Buffalo.
Ankoma-Mensa holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education and a Master's Degree in Literacy, both from Medaille College where she participated on the Mavericks' intercollegiate athletic teams for soccer, basketball and tennis during her undergraduate tenure. After graduating, Ankoma-Mensa served her alma mater as a graduate assistant in the Athletic Department, and also as the graduate residence coordinator for the Office of Residence Life.
Since her tenure at Medaille, she's gone on to add an Advanced Certification in TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) from D'Youville College and an Additional Qualification in Junior/Intermediate History from Queen's University.
She has also previously worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration and City of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in developing "Game Changers", a program that facilitates basketball activities for children with the aim of keeping them off the streets. Along the same lines, Ankoma-Mensa currently serves her community through coaching at basketball camps and organizing the King Fee Classic, a charitable basketball tournament that raises funds for cancer research.
Ankoma-Mensa's hometown is Toronto, Ontario.
