Dr. Okonta has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching.
WINSTON SALEM, NC, December 06, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Ike Ambrose Okonta, PhD, has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Leveraging more than four decades of excellence in philosophy, Dr. Okonta has earned distinction as a professor of philosophy. He is currently a member of the Department of Liberal Studies at Winston-Salem State University, however, from 2001 to 2011, a period of ten years, he was chair of the Department of Social Sciences, which was one of the largest academic departments at Winston-Salem State University. As chair of the Department of Social Sciences, Dr. Okonta's accomplishments were many. He created four new baccalaureate programs, namely, the justice studies program, the social work program, the gerontology program, and the Africana studies program. He played a critical role in creating the first computer laboratory in the university's Coltrane Hall and in overseeing the remodeling of Coltrane Hall to accommodate the expanding social science department and the newly created academic programs. As chair, he also established a departmental colloquium series to provide faculty with a forum for discussing their research with colleagues both within and outside the university.
Dr. Okonta began his academic career as a graduate student and teaching assistant in the department of philosophy at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1982. At the completion of his graduate studies at Miami University, he proceeded to the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, where he enrolled in the doctoral program in philosophy in 1983. He completed his Ph.D. program at the University of Georgia in 1987 and was appointed a lecturer at the University of Georgia for the spring semester of 1987. In the same year, he was offered a tenure-track position as an assistant professor of philosophy at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, in North Carolina. At Winston-Salem State University, which is a constituent institute of the University of North Carolina system, Dr. Okonta rose through the ranks, becoming a tenured Associate professor and a full professor in subsequent years.
As a scholar, Dr. Okonta's accomplishments are many. They include the publication of several scholarly books like Ethics: A Critical Introduction (1990), Classical & Contemporary Moral Issues (1991), Nietzsche: The Politics of Power (1992), and his latest work, The Failure of Leadership in Africa's Development (2020). Dr. Okonta has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching. His teaching awards include the Wachovia Excellence in Teaching Award, which he received in 1995, and the Board of Governors' Excellence in Teaching Award, the highest honor that the university of North Carolina system confers on a faculty member, which he received in 1997.
Prior to embarking on his professional journey, Dr. Okonta earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and theology at Urban University in Rome, Italy in 1977. He then received a Master of Arts degree in political philosophy from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1982, and subsequently, a Doctor of Philosophy in political philosophy from the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, in 1987.
Dr. Okonta is a member of the American Philosophical Association, the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and Phi Sigma Tau, which is the national honor society in Philosophy. Dr. Okonta's hobbies include playing the guitar, chess, and racquetball.
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