Honors and Awards

• Rita Dove, Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia, Pulitzer Prize winner, and former Poet Laureate of the United States, received the 2008 Library of Virginia Lifetime Achievement Award.

• Donna Y. Ford, Betts Professor of Education and Human Development at the Peabody College of Education of Vanderbilt University, was named 2008 Scholar of the Year by the National Association for Gifted Children.

Professor Ford hold bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all from Cleveland State University.

• Lauretta F. Byars, vice president for student affairs and institutional relations at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, received the Lyman T. Johnson Award from the University of Kentucky Alumni Association.

• Von Best Whitaker, an associate professor at the School of Nursing of North Carolina A&T State University, was named Research Nurse of the Year by the North Carolina Nurses Association.

A graduate of Columbia Union College, Whitaker holds a master’s degree from the University of Maryland. She earned a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.