Ama Appiah ’19 (CLAS)
Associate Manager, Programming at ESPN
Ama Appiah is a visionary and prolific marketing leader from Middletown, CT, now based in New York City. She graduated in 2019 as a Communication and Molecular and Cell Biology double major during her undergraduate tenure at UConn. At UConn, Ama served in many leadership roles, most notably as the first Black, female Undergraduate Student Body President. In this role, she successfully advocated for students through programming, policy changes and diplomacy – increasing funding for campus mental health programming, restructuring general education course requirements to include additional experiential learning, implementing diversity education opportunities, and expanding career development support for students entering post-grad. Additionally, she successfully led the charge to revise the final examination week schedule to include more reading days for students, increase opportunities for non-honors students to participate in research, and increase accessibility to advising resources online.
As an alumna, Ama continued to stay involved by serving on the UConn Life Transformative Education task force, which focused on cultivating methods to improve inclusive learning, improve advising, and identify support needed to implement life transformative education in the university culture. Ama was awarded the prestigious Forte Fellowship to pursue an MBA and Global Business Management certificate at George Washington University (GWU). At GWU, Ama served in diverse roles that included teaching English to GW Korean international students, serving on the Board of Trustees Environment, Social, and Governance Committee, holding leadership positions in the GW Student Association as a two term Graduate senator and Vice Chairperson for Education Policy, mentoring in the GW Black Girl Mentoring Program, and guiding international students as an Exchange Student Ambassador.
Ama has a dynamic career in international marketing across seven different industries, including entertainment, technology, media, gaming, fashion, higher education, government – all through the lens of youth culture, pop culture, internet communities and digital marketing. She is a trailblazer in the online media space. She had her start with running a media business for news on her favorite artist. While managing a global team of 5, her page attracted 65K+ followers, including news organizations such as iHeartRadio and Yahoo News UK. From designing statewide youth public health campaigns with former CT governor Dan Malloy to developing digital marketing strategies for startups in Ghana, Ama has developed a sharp/creative acumen in bringing stories that target global audience to life. Currently, she works at HP as a Global Brand and Partnerships manager. In this capacity, she leads the global commercial brand campaigns and high-profile partnerships. Her most recent activity includes partnership campaigns with the Real Madrid football club in Spain and Wrexham AFC in Wales.
Ama’s commitment to amplifying voices and fostering community engagement extends beyond her professional endeavors. As the host and producer of “The Bonnet Talks” podcast, she engages Gen Z from around the world in conversations on current issues, trends, and driving meaningful dialogue. The podcast is currently streamed in 88 countries by thousands of listeners globally. She also serves as the Communications Director of Raised By Grace Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping those on the Autism Spectrum transition successfully from school life into adulthood.