Dr. Maria Woodside-Oriakhi

University of The Bahamas
ACAO Board of Directors

Dr. Maria Woodside-OriakhiDr. Woodside-Oriakhi currently serves as the Vice President of Academic Affairs at University of The Bahamas. Her passion for helping young aspiring adults to reach their goals and full potential has led her to be involved in tertiary education for more than twenty years. Her mastery of mathematics and statistics through her many years of study and ultimately, her terminal degree, has provided scores of students with invaluable access to her teaching. She has international experience having worked with institutions and students around the world, including: The Bahamas, United States of America, Singapore, Canada and the United Kingdom. She has formerly taught as an Associate Professor and has also served as Chairperson of the School of Mathematics, Physics and Technology.

In her current role as Vice President of Academic Affairs, she oversees the overall administration and supervision of all matters pertaining to academic affairs; programmes, and faculty-related matters at the University. She provides leadership in preparing and monitoring the budget of Academic Affairs, ensuring compliance with budget limitations and fiscal policies, as well as overseeing the expansion of academic programme offerings at the University. Finally, she works in collaboration and partnership with the Academic Senate, the Academic Deans, Union of Tertiary Educators of the Bahamas and Student Government Association in order to achieve institutional strategic goals.

On the Academic Senate, she has assisted several academic units in incorporating measures of quality to enhance their teaching programmes and courses of study, meeting their respective disciplinary visions, as well as institutional and anticipated accreditation standards. She has served as College Preparatory Coordinator and Coordinator of numerous Mathematics and Statistics courses. She has written a number of papers that appear in international peer-reviewed journals as well as served as a peer reviewer. Her articles include “Heuristic Algorithms for the Cardinality Constrained Efficient Frontier,” “Enhancing Access to Education through On-line Learning” and “Portfolio rebalancing with fixed and variable transaction costs.” 

Dr. Woodside-Oriakhi has spoken at numerous conferences and workshops around the world. These include Healthy Community Project Workshop, Pan American Health Organization; INFORMS Annual Meeting, Charlotte Convention Center, USA;  Educational Seminar, The Bahamas Baptist Community College; World Statistics Day CelebrationDoctorial Student Conference in Operational Research, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK; and Online Learning, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore.

Dr. Woodside-Oriakhi holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Mathematics from the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA, a Master of Science (MSc) in Mathematics from the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Mathematics from Brunel University, London, UK. She shares a passion for music and enjoys singing in her spare time. She is also an avid reader and enjoys motivational and inspiring stories. She is married to Raymond Oriakhi with whom she shares her two most beautiful and precious gifts—her children: Raymond and Anne-Marie.