Emeritus Prof. Funmi Togonu-Bickersteth had her secondary school education at Queens College, Yaba, Lagos, her undergraduate education at the University of Ibadan and her Masters and doctoral degrees from Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1976 and 1978 respectively.
She began her University teaching career in 1976 at Delaware State college, USA and returned to Nigeria in 1979 when she joined the Department of Psychology, University of Ife (now OAU) as the first full time staff with a doctoral degree in the young department. She rose through the ranks and became a professor in 1995.
At OAU, Prof. Togonu-Bickersteth served as Head of Department, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and as Director of the Center for Industrial Research and Development. She served the University as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) from 2017 to 2011. Her areas of scholarly exertions are Developmental Psychology with focus on Adulthood and Aging. She is the author of several articles in high impact journals in Gerontology and is regarded as one of the pioneers in Gerontology in the African context.
Her academic work experience was further nourished by her engagements as International Consultant/Resource person / National Programme Officer in various UNDP/ILO projects in various African and European countries. In 2002, Prof. Togonu-Bickersteth was nominated in her personal capacity to serve for four years on the 24 member United Nations Committee on Development Policy (CDP), a subsidiary body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The CDP was charged with the task of providing independent advice to the United Nations on various development issues, particularly those concerned with developing countries.
Prof. Togonu-Bickersteth has been engaged as contributor at various public fora where conversations on different aspects of University administration and management were held. She has made public presentations on such issues as: “Attracting and retaining young academics in Nigerian Universities; Role of advancement in modern universities; Sexism in Nigerian education; Building a 21st century University: a task beyond government; The place and state of education in Nigerian, among others. Prof Togonu-Bickersteth served as the Co-Chair of the National Universities Commission Committee on Internationalization of Higher Education that was inaugurated in October, 2010 and participated actively in the planning of the 3rd Annual Conference of the African Network for Internalization of Education (ANIE).
Though retired from fulltime teaching in 2019, Prof. Togonu-Bickersteth continues to engage in diverse areas of academia. She participated in the recent NUC National Curriculum Review Exercise, and served for over a decade on the Screening and Monitoring Committee of the TETFund National Research Fund. She continues to mentor young and middle career academics in the area of proposal writing and research project delivery.
Prof. Togonu-Bickersteth is a member of various professional associations, among which are Gerontological Society of America, Association of Gerontology in Higher Education. She serves as occasional reviewer for a number of international journals or as member of their Editorial Board.
Prof. Togonu-Bickersteth was the immediate past Pro-Chancellor of Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara State and until recently was the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of Federal University, Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi state. She is also currently a member of Board of Regents at Hillside University of Science and Technology, Oke-Imesi, Ekiti State.
Prof. Funmi Togonu-Bickersteth is a member of the Board of Board of Trustees of the Association of Lifespan behavioral Development Practitioners. She also serves on a number of other Boards with focus on applying Psychological insights into addressing social issues.
Prof. Togonu-Bickersteth is the immediate past President of the Social Science Academy of Nigeria.
Prof. Togonu-Bickersteth is well travelled. Among the countries she has visited are: Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Liberia, Togo, USA, United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Finland, United Arab Emirates, South Korea and Gambia.
Her core values are: Simplicity, Transparency, Moral integrity, Diligence and Perseverance.
Organizations
- Committee for Development Policy (CDP)
- Office of the High Representative for LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS
- UNCTAD
- WTO
- Enhanced Integrated Framework – EIF
- UN Capital Development Fund – UNCDF
- Technology Bank for LDCs
- UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
- UNFCCC (Climate Change)
- UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific – ESCAP
- UNIDO
- Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL)
- International Trade Centre (ITC)
- United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
- International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
- World Meteorological Organization WMO