Dr. Isaac Addae Is Redefining What It Means To Travel To Ghana Beyond Detty December Through The Lens Of Economic And Community Development – AfroTech
Dr. Isaac Addae is redefining what it means to travel to Ghana beyond the annual monthlong celebration of Detty December.
Born to Ghanaian parents in Greensboro, NC, and raised across the South in the U.S., Addae’s upbringing shaped his connection to Ghanaian traditions and Black culture. His father’s academic career brought the family to Mississippi and Arkansas and sparked his interest in tech after spending his eighth-grade summer sitting in on his father’s courses on automated manufacturing.
Addae has two engineering degrees (B.S. in electrical and computer engineering, M.S. in systems engineering) from Tennessee State University. After completing his master’s degree, he landed his first tech role at IBM’s headquarters in Austin, TX.
After a year, he moved to Washington, D.C., to work in the defense industry as a systems engineer. It was during this time that he recognized there was more outside of tech that he wished to find fulfillment in.
“I had to learn how to separate my tech journey from my desire to make an impact in the world,” Addae told AFROTECH™. “I’m testing and developing microprocessors, so it’s a lot of heads-down in the lab or in your office working behind a laptop. There’s not really a lot of room in terms of like direct community impact … I struggled a bit in engineering because I felt like I’m making good money, I’m working on interesting projects, the technology is cool, but how am I changing people’s lives.”
Addae wanted to transition into a business role within the next decade, so he went on to earn a doctoral degree in business administration and management from Morgan State University. After graduation, he became a professor at Tennessee State University, a position he had held since 2015.
“That was the best thing I could’ve ever done, because I’m teaching business strategy, I’m teaching entrepreneurship, but I have this extensive tech and business background,” he explained. “So, I could go into any organization as a consultant. I could work with executive leaders. I could prepare students in the classroom for their careers in the business world. I really thrived there because I was able to make that more immediate impact teaching HBCU students, and that really kind of set my career on a very different trajectory.”
The Conscious Group
Addae said the culmination of insights and experience from his career inspired the launch of The Conscious Group in 2025. It is a strategy and global engagement firm focused on leadership, community dialogue, diaspora engagement, and Africa-U.S. economic collaboration, partnering with executives, universities, governments, and investors, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Conscious Immersion
One of the organization’s initiatives, Conscious Immersion, brings leaders and HBCU students to Ghana through quarterly trips and customized experiences focused on economic and community development.
Participants from education, technology, entrepreneurship, healthcare, and other sectors have joined the trips, which combine relationship-building, workshops, and cultural experiences, including visits to slave castles and the Volta Region, where Addae’s family is from. Through these experiences, he helps visitors understand Ghana’s opportunities in ways they may not discover on their own.
“So when people come to me about Ghana, most of the time they’ve heard about Detty December. I spend time reframing, ‘Hey, go to Ghana in December and have fun, but go to Ghana for other reasons like community development, economic development, starting a business, bringing a university there, buying real estate.’ There’s so much more to Ghana than just that two-week window after Christmas with all the parties and stuff … Our trips help demystify some of that,” he explained.
Nearly 60 people are now exploring opportunities to establish businesses in Ghana, including Frederick Cawthon, founder of Nashville-based Biocatalysis Creations, who is developing a waste-to-energy solution in partnership with Ghana’s Ministry of Energy.
“He had never been to Africa. He joined me on the first Conscious Immersion we did in May of last year. He’s been on every Conscious Immersion since,” said Addae. “And he’s working directly with the Ministry of Energy in Ghana to establish a presence for Biocatalysis Creations to pilot a waste-to-energy solution in the country because Ghana deals with a lot of plastic waste.”
“So, he’s a Tennessee business owner, but before he went to Ghana, the focus of his work was local. Now he’s building globally,” he continued.
Addae said Conscious Immersion has become The Conscious Group’s “biggest opportunity,” opening doors for future trips across the continent, including planned experiences in Egypt, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania by 2027.
