Grace Alele-Williams
|
Grace Alele-Williams  |
|
|
Birth |
December 16, 1932 |
|
Death |
March 25, 2022 ( 89
years old) |
|
Citizenship |
Nigeria |
|
Alma
mater |
·
University
of Chicago ·
University
of Vermont ·
University
of Ibadan ·
University
of London |
|
Occupation |
math,
university professor, |
|
Awards |
·
Order
of the Niger (1987) |
|
Employer |
Moshood Abiola University,
University of Vermont |
Grace Alele-Williams was a Nigerian mathematician and university teacher. She was the first Nigerian to earn a Ph.D. and the first vice-chancellor of an African university.
Biography
Childhood and education
Grace Alele-Williams studied at Government School in Warri, where she was born, and later at Queen's College in Lagos. She entered the University of Ibadan then continued at the University of Vermont in the United States and the University of Chicago. She obtained her doctorate in mathematics education at the University of Chicago in 1963, with a thesis entitled Dynamics of Education in the Birth of a New Nation: Case study of Nigeria.
Career
Her teaching career began at Queen's School in Ede, Osun State, where Grace Alele-Williams taught mathematics from 1954 to 1957. She left for the University of Vermont to become a graduate assistant and then an assistant professor. Between 1963 and 1965, Alele-Williams benefited from a post-doctoral research fellowship, at the department (and institute) of Education of the University of Ibadan where she obtained the status of professor of mathematics at the University of Lagos in 1976.
Through her participation in various committees and boards, Grace Alele-Williams has made valuable contributions to educational development in Nigeria. She was Secretary-General of the Curriculum Review Board, former Bendel State from 1973 to 1979. From 1979 to 1985, she held the same position in Lagos State where she also looked after examination boards.
Grace Alele-Williams is a board member of the UNESCO Institute of Education. She is also a consultant to UNESCO and the Institute of International Education Planning (IIEP). For a decade (1963-73) she was a member of the African Mathematics Program, located in Newton, Massachusetts, USA. She is working there under the direction of Ted Martins, a professor at MIT. She is also vice-president of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education of which she later chairs the Nigerian chapter.
After serving as vice-chancellor of the University of Benin, she joined the board of directors of Chevron-Texaco in Nigeria. She is also among the directors of HIP Asset Management Company Ltd, an asset management firm in Lagos, Nigeria.
Family
Grace Alele-William has five children and ten grandchildren with her husband, Professor Babatunde Williams.
Awards
- 954: Honors Degree in Mathematics from the University of London
- 1959: Graduate Fellowship Award, University of Chicago, Illinois.
- 1987: Order of the Niger
- Fellow of the Mathematical Association of Nigeria
- Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Education
- Merit Award Winner of Bendel State in Nigeria
- Regional Vice President for Africa of the Third World Organization for Women in Science (Science in Africa: Women Leading from Strength AAAS, Washington, 1993)
- Chairwoman of AMUCWMA, African Mathematical Union Commission for Women in Mathematics
Publications
- 1971: Report: The Entebbe Mathematics Project, International Review of Education.
- 1974: Dynamics of Curriculum Change in Mathematics - Lagos State Modern Mathematics Project, West African Journal of Education
- 1976: The Development of Modern Mathematics Curriculum in Africa, The Arithmetic Teacher.
- 1986: Education of Women for National Development, Cite journal requires
- Education and Government in Northern Nigeria.
- Education and Status of Nigerian Women.
- Science, Technology, and Mathematics (STM) Education for all, Including Women and Girls in Africa.
- Major Constraints on Women's Access to Higher Education in Africa.
- The Politics of Administering a Nigerian University.
- Numerical Methods for Initial Value Problems in Ordinary Differential Equations.
- The Political Dilemma of Popular Education: An African Case.
