Awards

• James M. Rosser, president of California State University at Los Angeles, received the Frank W. Hale Jr. Diversity Leadership Award from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education.

Dr. Rosser has served as president of the university for nearly 30 years. He holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Southern Illinois University.

• Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kellner Family Professor in Urban Education in the department of curriculum and instruction, received the 2008 Hilldale Award recognizing excellence in teaching at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Professor Ladson-Billings has been on the University of Wisconsin faculty since 1991. She is a graduate of Morgan State University and holds a master’s degree from the University of Washington and a doctorate from Stanford University.

• Dereje Agonafer, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, received the Thermomechanical Challenges in Electronic Packaging Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers’ Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society.

A native of Ethiopia, Dr. Agonafer holds a bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in engineering from Howard University.

• Aundreta Connor, a senior majoring in philosophy and religion, was named a Fulbright Scholar for study in Turkey. She is the first student from Claflin University, the historically black educational institution in Orangeburg, South Carolina, to win a Fulbright scholarship.