African Americans Who Hold Endowed and Distinguished Professorships in Education

by Nicholas D. Hartlep and Kendra Theodosopoulos

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education has a history of publishing articles on the numbers of African American endowed professors. This article updates this previous literature and adds to it by looking specifically at current faculty of education who hold either endowed or distinguished professorships. As of the writing of this article, we have identified 43 endowed faculty. Twenty are women and 23 are men. Meanwhile, there are nine distinguished faculty. Eight are men and one is a woman.

African Americans with Endowed Chairs in Education:

Walter Allen (Ph.D., University of Chicago)
Allan Murray Cartter Professor of Higher Education
University of California, Los Angeles/Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences

James D. Anderson (Ph.D., University of Illinois)
Edward William and Jane Marr Gutsgell Professor of Education
University of Illinois – Champaign Urbana

James A. Banks (Ph.D., Michigan State University)
Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies
University of Washington, Seattle

Floyd D. Beachum (Ed.D., Bowling Green State University)
Bennett Professor of Urban School Leadership
Lehigh University

Lynn Beckwith Jr. (Ed.D., Saint Louis University)
E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professorship in Urban Education in Conjunction with the St. Louis Public Schools
University of Missouri – St. Louis

Fred Bonner (Ed.D., University of Arkansas)
Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education
Rutgers University

Cory T. Brown (Ph.D., Ohio State University)
Ashland Oil College of Education Endowed Professorship
Murray State University

Norvella P. Carter (Ph.D., Loyola University of Chicago)
Endowed Chair in Urban Education
Texas A & M University

Beverly E. Cross (Ph.D., Ohio State University)
Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence in Urban Education
University of Memphis

Philip T.K. Daniel (Ed.D., University of Illinois)
William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Professor of Educational Administration
The Ohio State University

Linda Darling-Hammond (Ed.D., Temple University)
Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education
Stanford University

James Earl Davis (Ph.D., Cornell University)
Bernard C. Watson Endowed Chair in Urban Education
Temple University

Cynthia B. Dillard (Ph.D., Washington State University)
Mary Frances Early Professor of Teacher Education
University of Georgia

Anderson J. Franklin (Ph.D., University of Oregon)
Honorable David S. Nelson Professor of Psychology and Education Director
Boston College

Vivian L. Gadsden (Ed.D., University of Michigan)
William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Education
University of Pennsylvania

Carl A. Grant (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Hoefs-Bascom Professor of Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Louis M. Gomez (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley)
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning
University of California Los Angeles

Preston C. Green III (Ed.D., Teachers College/Columbia University)
John and Carla Klein Professor of Urban Education
University of Connecticut

Janet E. Helms (Ph.D., Iowa State University)
Augustus Long Professor in Measurement and Assessment
Boston College

Joyce E. King (Ph.D., Stanford University)
Benjamin E. Mays Endowed Chair
Georgia State University

Gloria Ladson-Billings (Ph.D., Stanford University)
Kellner Family Professorship in Urban Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (Ed.D., Harvard University)
Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education
Harvard University

Carol D. Lee (Ph.D., University of Chicago)
Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education and Social Policy
Northwestern University

Veronica Evans Lewis (Ph.D., University of Southern Mississippi)
Kitty Degree Endowed Professorship in Education
University of Louisiana Monroe

Bridget Terry Long (Ph.D., Harvard University)
Saris Professor of Education and Economics
Graduate School of Education, Harvard University

Jabari Mahiri (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago)
William and Mary Jane Brinton Family Chair in Urban Teaching
University of California, Berkeley

H. Richard Milner IV (Ph.D., Ohio State University)
Helen Faison Chair in Urban Education
University of Pittsburgh

Roland Mitchell (Ph.D., University of Alabama)
Jo Ellen Levy Yates Endowed Professor, School of Education
Louisiana State University

Alicia Moore (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin)
Cargill Professorship in Education
Southwestern University

Ernest Morrell (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley)
Macy Professor of Education
Teachers College, Columbia University

Velma McBride Murry (Ph.D., University of Missouri)
Louis Autrey Betts Chair in Education and Human Development
Vanderbilt University

Pedro A. Noguera (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley)
Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education
New York University

Carla O’Connor (Ph.D., University of Chicago)
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor
University of Michigan

Peter Sheppard (Ph.D., Southern University)
SLEMCO/BORSF Professorship in Education
University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Margaret Beale Spencer (Ph.D., University of Chicago)
Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education
University of Chicago

Howard Stevenson (Ph.D., Fuller Graduate School of Psychology)
Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education
University of Pennsylvania

Gail L. Thompson (Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University)
Wachovia-Wells Fargo Endowed Professor of Education
Fayetteville State University

William Lofton Turner (Ph.D., Virginia Tech)
Betts Chair of Education and Human Development
Vanderbilt University/Peabody College

Gregory J. Vincent (Ed.D, University of Pennsylvania)
W.K. Kellogg Professorship in Community College Leadership
University of Texas at Austin

Vanessa Siddle Walker (Ed.D., Harvard University)
Samuel Dobbs Professor of Educational Studies
Emory University

Allyson L. Watson (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma)
Eddings Endowed Chair for Urban Education, Outreach and Research
Northeastern State University

Maisha T. Winn (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley)
Susan J. Cellmer Chair in Teacher Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison

John Yelding (M.A., Western Michigan University)
Susan M. and Glenn G. Cherup Professorship in Education
Hope College

African Americans with Distinguished Professorships:

Lamont A. Flowers (Ph.D., University of Iowa)
Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership
Clemson University

Howard L. Fuller (Ph.D., Marquette University)
Distinguished Professor of Education
Marquette University

Jerlando F. L. Jackson (Ph.D., Iowa State University)
Vilas Distinguished Professor of Higher Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Chance W. Lewis (Ph.D., Colorado State University)
Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Urban Education
University of North Carolina – Charlotte

Kofi Lomotey (Ph.D., Stanford University)
Chancellor John Bardo and Deborah Bardo Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership
Western Carolina University

James L. Moore III (Ph.D., Virginia Tech)
EHE Distinguished Professor of Urban Education
The Ohio State University

Charles Payne (Ph.D., Northwestern University)
Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor
University of Chicago

Marilyn Strutchens (Ph.D., University of Georgia)
Mildred Cheshire Fraley Distinguished Professor
Auburn University

William F. Tate (Ph.D., University of Maryland)
Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences
Washington University in St. Louis

Authors’ Note: Every effort has been made to identify all African Americans holding endowed chairs and distinguished professorships at American universities. We apologize in advance if there have been any omissions and, if so, we ask our readers to inform us of any inaccuracies. We have updated the original version of this article to reflect reader contributions and thank them for their input.

About the authors: Nicholas Daniel Hartlep teaches at Illinois State University in the Department of Educational Administration and Foundations. Kendra Theodosopoulos is a doctoral student at Illinois State University and at the time of this article was a graduate assistant.