JBHE: Latest News for 10/15/09

Appointments, Promotions, and Resignations

• Jonathan N. Pinson was elected chair of the board of trustees of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg. Pinson, who is president of Professional Staffing Solutions in Greenville, South Carolina, has been on the board since 2005.

• Kimberly Springer was named Sterling Brown 1922 Visiting Professor of Africana Studies at Williams College. She has been on the faculty of Kings College in London for the past five years.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Professor Springer earned her Ph.D. at Emory University.

• Alphonso Simpson was named interim chair of the department of African-American studies at Western Illinois University in Macomb. Since 2000 he has been serving as an associate professor in the department.

Dr. Simpson is a graduate of Alabama State University. He holds a master’s degree in music education from the University of Missouri and a doctorate from the University of Wyoming.

• Isabel Wilkerson, who in 1994 won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing while at the New York Times, is joining the journalism faculty at the College of Communication at Boston University. A graduate of Howard University, Wilkerson was a journalism professor at Emory University.

• Donaldson L.T. Byrd, an internationally renowned jazz trumpeter, was named artist in residence at Delaware State University in Dover. He will teach master’s courses and participate in fundraising activities.

Donald Byrd is a graduate of Wayne State University and the Manhattan School of Music. He holds an educational doctorate from Columbia Teachers College.

• Dwight Brooks was named director of the School of Journalism at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. He was chair of the department of mass communications at Jackson State University.

Dr. Brooks is a graduate of East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. He holds a master’s degree from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in communication studies from the University of Iowa.

• Sterling Steward Jr. was appointed associate director of athletics for compliance at Alabama State University. He will also serve as interim athletics director. He was the assistant athletics director at Kentucky State University in Frankfort.

Steward holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi.

• Marlon James was appointed assistant professor of English at Macalester College in Minnesota. The author of two novels, James had been teaching at the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City.

James is a graduate of the University of the West Indies. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from Wilkes University.

• Linda Florence Callahan, a professor of journalism and mass communication at North Carolina A&T State University, was appointed to the board of directors of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.