Rhoda Osei-Nkwantabisa

Most recently, Rhoda Osei-Nkwantabisa has been pursuing a Master in City Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, specializing in Community Design and Development. 

Trained as a Graduate Architect, she works at the intersection of urban design, sustainability, and social equity, with a focus on how infrastructure and planning decisions shape life in vulnerable and underserved communities. 

Prior to MIT, Rhoda worked with Atelier SMQ, a Ghana-based architecture firm, contributing to projects such as the W.E.B. Du Bois Museum & Library in Accra and the University of Ghana Legacy Project: The Student's Experience Center, (a design competition for which Atelier placed first amongst 10 other firms). 

Earlier in her career, she served as Regional Secretary of the Ashanti Regional Students’ Representative Council (ARSRC), supporting student leaders, organizing orientations, and coordinating communication between schools and institutional heads.

 Alongside her studies, she has also taken on teaching and research support roles, including as a Teaching Assistant for “Applied Data Science for Cities,” deepening her engagement with spatial analysis and urban data.

Rhoda completed her architectural studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana, where her interest in planning grew from conducting research that observed the contrasts between planned and unplanned communities, changes that occur and their uneven access to services. 

She is actively involved in climate and environmental advocacy through groups such as Youth in Natural Resources and Environmental Governance (Y-NREG) and 350-Ghana Reducing Our Carbon (350 GROC). 

Across her academic, professional, and advocacy work, Rhoda is committed to designing context-relevant, climate-responsive, and resilient spaces, and to developing planning approaches that center marginalized communities in Ghana and beyond.