Notable Honors Awarded to Two African American Women in Higher Education

Rita Dove, Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia and the former Poet Laureate of the United States is one of three inaugural winners of the Roosevelt “Rosey” Thompson Award from U.S. Presidential Scholars Foundation. The award is named for a 1980 Presidential Scholar who died in a car accident just before he was to leave for England on a Rhodes Scholarship. The Thompson Award honors individuals for their accomplishments and contributions to a civil society and advancement of educational opportunities.

Professor Dove, who served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1993 to 1995, won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987. She joined the creative writing faculty at the University of Virginia in 1989. Professor Dove is a summa cum laude graduate of the Miami University and holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa.

DiOnetta Jones Crayton, associate dean for undergraduate education and director of the Office for Minority Education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, received the Inclusive Culture and Equity Award from the Women in Engineering Pro-Active Network. Crayton joined the staff at the university in 2009. Earlier, she was director of diversity programs for the College of Engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Crayton is a graduate of Northwestern State University in Louisiana. She earned a master’s degree in educational counseling from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.

Related Articles

1 COMMENT

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

California State University Sacramento Launches Black Honors College

Officially launching for the fall 2024 semester, the Black Honors College will support students from all backgrounds who study Black history, life, and culture by providing them with a specialized curriculum and mentoring opportunities.

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

In Memoriam: Norman B. Anderson, 1955-2024

Dr. Anderson was the assistant vice president for research and academic affairs at Florida State University at the time of his death. He had an extensive career in clinical psychology, which led him to become the first African American chief executive officer of the American Psychological Association.

Georgia State University Launches Program to Support Black Women in Tech

While Black women account for roughly 29 percent of the Georgia State University undergradaute student body, they represent only 10 percent of the university's computer science majors and 18 percent of the computer information systems majors.

Featured Jobs