Six Black Scholars Who Are Taking on New Faculty Assignments in Higher Education

Frederick W. Gooding, Jr. has been named the inaugural holder of the Dr. Ronald E. Moore Honors Professorship in Humanities at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Dr. Gooding has been serving as an associate professor of African-American studies. He recently completed a senior research fellowship at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Professor Gooding is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he majored in philosophy. He earned a master’s degree in Latin American studies and a juris doctorate at the University of New Mexico and a Ph.D. in American history at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Tekla Ali Johnson has been appointed an assistant professor of African-American studies at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. She is the author of Free Radical: Ernest Chambers, Black Power, and the Politics of Race (Texas Tech University Press, 2014).

Dr. Johnson earned a Ph.D. in history with an emphasis in African American studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005.

Virgil Goodwine was named an assistant professor of music and director of ensembles at Wilberforce University in Ohio. He had been serving as director of instrumental music for a public school district in suburban Detroit.

Dr. Goodwine received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. He holds a master’s degree in music from the University of Dayton in Ohio and a doctorate in higher education leadership and research from Capella University.

Delali Kumavie is a new assistant professor of English at Syracuse University in New York. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University. Her research focuses on African and African diasporic literature and critical race theory.

Dr. Kumavie earned a Ph.D. at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Patrese A. Robinson-Drummer is a new assistant professor of neuroscience at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. She spent two years at New York University as a postdoctoral fellow before coming to Haverford in 2020 as a visiting assistant professor.

Dr. Robinson-Drummer earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Delaware. She also holds a master’s degree in experimental psychology from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

Sierra Williams was appointed an assistant professor of chemistry at Claremont McKenna College in California. Her research interests currently focus on understanding and improving potential protein therapeutics to combat harmful bacteria.

Dr. Williams began her higher education at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, then transferred to Temple University in Philadelphia, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Davis.

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