News of Appointments, Promotions, and Retirements of Black Faculty

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERAPaul Potier was appointed associate professor and chair of the department of engineering technology at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. He was a faculty member in the department of electronics and advanced technologies at Austin Community College.

Dr. Potier is a graduate of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Prairie View A&M University.

poleNnamdi Pole was promoted to full professor of psychology at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He joined the Smith College faculty in 2008 after teaching at the University of Michigan for seven years.

Dr. Pole is a graduate of Rutgers University in New Jersey. He holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Smith.MauriceMaurice Smith was granted tenure in the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) as a professor of bioengineering. With this promotion, Dr. Smith became the first African American to receive tenure in SEAS.

Professor Smith received his medical degree and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

pam_barbaraPamela Barber-Freeman, a professor in the Whitlowe R. Green College of Education at Prairie View A&M University, has been chosen as president-elect of the Research Association of Minority Professors.

Dr. Barber-Freeman has been on the faculty at Prairie View A&M since 2000. She is a graduate of Langston University in Oklahoma and holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Oklahoma.

Dabiri_Spiropulu-APS-NEWS-WEB-REVJohn Dabiri, professor of aeronautics and bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society. He was honored for his research in pioneering new concepts in wind energy.

Professor Dabiri is a 2001 graduate of Princeton University, where he majored in mechanical and aerospace engineering. He earned a master’s degree in aeronautics and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from CalTech. Professor Dabiri joined the CalTech faculty in 2005.

EmoryPhillip B. Williams was appointed the Creative Writing Fellow in Poetry at Emory University for the 2015-2017 period. He is the author of the forthcoming collection of poetry Thief in the Interior (Alice James Books, 2016).

Williams holds a master of fine arts degree in writing from Washington University in St. Louis.

D09_347_112Clarence Lusane, professor in the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C., has announced that he will retire from his teaching position at the end of the academic year. He has served on the faculty at the university for 18 years.

Professor Lusane is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit. He earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

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