[9] Kaufmann began her secondary education at the Aburi Girls' Senior High School, and obtained her International Baccalaureate Diploma from the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales in 1988.

[10] Prof. Kaufmann was a research supervisor at the Department of Chemistry at Rutgers University in New Jersey, United States of America from May 1998 to June 2001.

[10][12] Elsie Effah Kaufmann is a visiting scholar and Founding Head of the Department of Orthotics and Prosthetics at the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, Ghana.

The foundation aims to close the existing gap in STEM-related education in Ghana by giving students access to the resources they need to do in-depth, hands-on research on the subjects.

[22] She received the International Women's Forum Leadership Foundation Fellowship in 2011 and the 2017 Impact Africa Summit Laureate for Education in Ghana.

[22][23] She is also the first female recipient of the 2018 Golden Torch Award for International Academic Leadership by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) at the 44th Annual Conference held in the United States of America.