Imelda Udoh received her Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D degrees from the University of Calabar in 1983, 1986, and 1998 (Inter-language Phonology). She is currently a Professor and a member of staff of the Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, University of Uyo since 1986, where she has served as the Head of Department from 1993 - 1995, 2000 - 2001, 2004 - 2007, 2010 - 2013; Vice Dean, Faculty of Arts 2010-2012; Member of the UNIUYO International Programme's Committee 2011 to date, Deputy Director, School of Continuing Education from 2015 - 2016. She has also served as External Examiner and Assessor in many Nigerian and oversea Universities.

Prof. Udoh has been a Research Visitor to the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 1996, a Research Scholar to the University College, London in 1999, a Post Doctoral Visiting Scholar on sabbatical to the University of California, Berkeley, from 2001-2002, Professor on sabbatical to University of Calabar, from 2008-2009, 2016 - 2017. She has done extensive research in Descriptive and Documentary Linguistics on the languages of the Upper and Lower Cross River spoken in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States of Nigeria, through several projects like: the Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Language Data (E-MELD) housed in Michigan State University, of which she is an Advisor (since 2005); the Abidjan-Bielefeld-Uyo Introduction to Language Documentation (ABUILD) Project; the Lower Cross Languages Project (LCLP), of which she is the Chair, the Nigerian Languages Project (NLP) nlp.imeldaudoh.com.ng, which she coordinates; and the Prime Minister's Initiative 2 Connect Delivery Project Funded by the British Council for 2011, of which she was the Nigerian Co-Lead Partner. The languages she has worked on include Leggbo, Iko, Nkari, Anaang, Ibibio, Uda; and her work on these languages has yielded over sixty publications including articles in journals (in Nigeria, Europe, Asia and America).

She has a passion for the minority languages of Nigeria, especially Leggbo, and other Upper Cross languages of the Cross River State. That passion has produced several books in the area. She is also the current editor of USEM Journal of Languages, Linguistics & Literature. She is a member of several professional associations like the West African Linguistics Society (WALS), the Reading Association of Nigeria (RAN), the Nigerian Language Teachers' Association (ANLAT), the Linguistic Association of Nigeria (LAN), of which she was Secretary from 2004-2008, and the current Vice President since 2016. Professor Udoh is a DAAD alumnus and a member of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. She was a member of the Governing Council of the University of Uyo, where she represented the Senate of the University from 2015 - 2017; as well as a pioneering member of the Governing Council of the Ritman University, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, from 2015 - to date.