Appiah-Opoku, Seth
Seth Appiah-Opoku
Dr. Seth Appiah-Opoku is a Professor of Geography and teaches Urban Planning and Analysis, Land Use Regulation, World Regional Geography, and a field studies in Africa course. He is an American Institute of Certified Planners member and has contributed questions to the AICP exam. He is the author of two books and editor of three. He has served on the international editorial board of the Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment since 2003 and has published scholarly articles in several renowned journals. He served on the Technical Advisory Team that advised the Ghana government on preparing a 40-year development plan in 2015. He teaches undergraduate and graduate students and has served on several thesis and dissertation committees.
Schnarre, E., Appiah-Opoku, S., Weber, J., and Steven, J. Improving Mobility and Infrastructural Connectivity on College Campus for Commuting Students: A Case Study from the U.S. 2022. Journal of Urban, Planning and Transport Research, 10(1). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21650020.2022.2104755
Appiah-Opoku, S., Glass, C., Weber, J., Jones, S.L., and Chan, A. 2020. The Role of Bike Share programs in Transit-Oriented Development: The Case of Birmingham, Alabama. Journal of Urban Planning and Development. https://ascelibrary.org/doi/epdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%29UP.1943-5444.0000567
Asare-Akuffo, F., Boakye, R.T., Appiah-Opoku,S., and J.O. Sobanjo. 2019. Spatial Accessibility to Hospital Facilities: The Case of Kumasi, Ghana. Journal of African Geographical Review. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19376812.2019.1636667
Appiah-Opoku, S., and S. Adu-Prah. 2017. Spatiotemporal evidence of climate change across diverse agro-ecological zones in Ghana, Journal of African Geographical Review. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19376812.2017.1404923
Seth Appiah-Opoku was born in Ghana on December 30, 1965, and is one of six children born to Sinclair and Akua Asaama Appiah-Opoku. His father was an architect who owned his own firm. Influenced by his father’s career path, Dr. Appiah-Opoku decided to pursue a degree in planning. He received his Bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning in 1990 at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, Ontario. He then attended the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, where he received a master’s degree in Rural Planning and International Development in 1992.
Dr. Appiah-Opoku became interested in an environmental career path during his undergraduate studies when he realized the impact of environmental considerations on planning and policy decisions. “Humans have been degrading the environment for many years, and we’re realizing that we need to reverse that trend,” Dr. Appiah-Opoku says. He realized planners could be positive agents for environmental change and decided to focus his doctoral studies on environmental planning.
Dr. Appiah-Opoku obtained a Ph.D. in Environmental Planning from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, in 1997. He was hired as an instructor at the University of Northern British Columbia, where he taught classes in environmental planning, air pollution, hazardous waste management, and gender and the environment. In 1998 he moved to the University of Vermont, where he added courses in international environmental issues, indigenous ecological knowledge, and environmental awareness. In 1999, he began directing a summer abroad course in Ghana. The course, which Dr. Appiah-Opoku still teaches at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, examines how culture impacts the environment and environmental discourse and has proved very successful. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. He teaches land use regulation and environmental management and planning.
Dr. Appiah-Opoku served on the Technical Advisory Team that advised Ghana’s government on preparing a 40-year development plan for the country in 2015. In 2005, he passed the American Institute of Certified Planners exam, joining only about 13,400 other certified planners in the U.S. In 2005, he also published his first book, The Need for Indigenous Knowledge in Environment Impact Assessment: The Case of Ghana. He recently edited the book Environmental Land Use Planning (2012). Published by INTECH, this book brings together contributions from leading environmental scholars around the globe, including Canada, the USA, China, Jordan, Nigeria, Germany, Serbia, Venezuela, and Brazil. Dr. Appiah-Opoku has served on the international editorial board of the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review since 2003, an opportunity that gained him international recognition. He has received many awards, including the Young Canadian Researcher’s Award from the International Development Research Center and a Rural Research Development Award from the University of Guelph. Dr. Appiah-Opoku received academic merit awards from the University of Waterloo and Ryerson Polytechnic University.
In addition to his current duties as a teacher and researcher, Dr. Appiah-Opoku is on the mediation committee at the University of Alabama, advising university officials to resolve high-level internal conflicts. When advising students of color, Appiah-Opoku urges them to have self-confidence, discipline, organizational skills, and, most importantly, a strong work ethic. In his own words: “Don’t be discouraged by obstacles that may come your way. Face your problems and keep going forward” (2016).
Dr. Appiah-Opoku credits his academic success to “the basics”: hard work, publishing outstanding research, being an excellent teacher, and engaging in service to help his students, his community, and the world. He has benefited from the inspiration and guidance of several mentors. Dr. Appiah-Opoku particularly notes one undergraduate professor at Ryerson, whose course on environmental impact assessment sparked in him a realization of the urgent need for new and innovative methods of protecting the environment. Dr. Appiah-Opoku also cites his graduate advisor, who made him aware of his full potential. He says that his advisor told him he could go as far in his career as he was willing to work for, a principle Dr. Appiah-Opoku applies to this day.
Following in the footsteps of his mentors, Dr. Appiah-Opoku, in turn, encourages his students. He endeavors to give them direction and strongly urges them to recognize potential problems and learn how to navigate around them. Experience has taught him that many students struggle because they lack adequate time and financial management skills. Dr. Appiah-Opoku says these are problems that students can overcome with proactive strategies, personalized organization skills, and a sound budgeting system. Dr. Appiah-Opoku shares anecdotes of his life as a student to serve as examples of how school, work, and other pressures can be effectively managed.
Many of those anecdotes come from Dr. Appiah-Opoku’s days as an undergraduate student at the Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, when he attended classes during the day and worked at night to finance his education. Through this experience, Dr. Appiah-Opoku says he remained committed to pursuing a career in the environmental field. As a student, he came to believe his work could positively impact the world; he says environmental planners are “missionaries who are in a position to spread the gospel about the need to conserve and protect the environment.” For this reason, he also relishes his position as a professor. “There’s no other way to touch so many hearts than to teach,” he says (2016).
Interview conducted by Multicultural Environmental Leadership Development Initiative staff. 2016. University of Michigan – School of Natural Resources and Environment. Ann Arbor, MI.