Estella Atekwana

Atekwana grew up in Cameroon and obtained her B.S. in Geology from Howard University in 1983 as a first-generation college student. At Howard University, Atekwana started in a pre-med program before switching to a geology major. She credits a teacher in the 1970s for inspiring her to pursue geology when they said that girls weren't suited for field work. She set out to prove the teacher wrong. After earning her B.S., Atekwana completed an M.S. in geology, also at Howard University in 1986. In 1991, Atekwana completed a Ph.D. in Geophysics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. After completing graduate school, she became an assistant professor at Western Michigan University. On a sabbatical in 1999, Atekwaka was a visiting professor at the University of Botswana. After leaving Western Michigan University in 2003, she taught at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis and Missouri University of Science and Technology before starting at Oklahoma State University's Boone Pickens School of Geology in 2007.

Estella Atekwana (née Estella Akweseh Nkwate; born 13 September 1961) is a geophysicist studying biogeophysics and tectonophysics. She is currently Dean of the College of Letters and Science at University of California, Davis. She previously served as Dean of the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment at the University of Delaware. She is also an adjunct professor at both the University of Waterloo and the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Before joining the University of Delaware in 2017, she was the Department Head of the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University. She is a Regents Distinguished Professor and a Clyde Wheeler Sun Endowed Chair at Oklahoma State University, where she maintains an adjunct appointment. Atekwana has also been a faculty member at Missouri University of Science & Technology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and Western Michigan University.