Esi Sutherland-Addy is a Ghanaian academic, writer, educationalist, and human rights activist.

[11] She has been on both local and global boards with companies such as Ghana Commercial Bank, Open Society for West Africa, and  The Commonwealth of Learning.

She has also held key roles in non-governmental organizations and she has been on the executive board of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE)[12] and the Mmofra Foundation.

[14] She serves as the  Chairperson of the following entities: Board of Trustees of the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights.

The Forum of African Women Educationalists (Ghana) and Afram Publications Ghana Ltd.[9] Esi Sutherland-Addy has been the recipient of several awards, which include: An Honorary Fellowship of the College of Preceptors, UK (1998), A Group Award by the Rockefeller Foundation (2001 and 2002) for the Women Writing Africa Project, An Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Education, Winneba (2004), and the Excellence in Distance Education Award from the Commonwealth of Learning (2008).