An Educational Milestone for April Gillens at Clemson University
Earlier this month, April Gillens became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in environmental engineering and earth sciences at Clemson University in South Carolina.
Milestones
Aug 16, 2016 | 0 comments
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The First Black Leader of the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
Billy C. Hawkins, president of Talladega College in Alabama, has been chosen to chair the board of directors of the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. He is the first African American to chair the association’s board.
A Black Woman’s Half-Century Journey to a Bachelor’s Degree
Delores Ojunga-Andrew is a Black woman who is a member of the Class of 2018 at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. At age 72, she is the oldest student enrolled at the women’s college.
Jul 12, 2016 | 0 comments
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The First Black Woman Chair of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees
Dr. Harris is the former director of health services for Fulton County, Georgia, and the former medical director for the Fulton County Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
Jul 06, 2016 | 0 comments
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Hampton University Professor Competed for Miss USA Title, Another HBCU Alumna Wins It
Desiree Williams, an assistant professor of physical therapy at Hampton University finished in the top 10 at the Miss USA pageant. The winner is an Army commander and an alumna of historically Black Virginia State University.
Jun 14, 2016 | 0 comments
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Black Identical Twins Each Had the Highest GPA at FIU’s College of Engineering and Computing
Shalisha and Shonda Witherspoon are identical twins. They recently graduated from the College of Engineering and Computing at Florida International University in Miami with identical 3.95 grade point averages, the best in the college.
The First African American to Earn a Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh
Adrienne Washington of Morgantown, West Virginia, is a graduate of Hampton University in Virginia. She received a master’s degree in linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh.
Paula Johnson Will Be the First African American President of Wellesley College
Dr. Johnson is a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. She is the founder and executive director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Feb 12, 2016 | 3 comments
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The Youngest Ph.D. Recipient in the History of Delaware State University
Jalaal A. Hayes recently was awarded a Ph.D. in applied chemistry at Delaware State University at the age of 22. Dr. Hayes graduated from high school at the age of 15 and earned a bachelor’s degree at the age of 18.
Jan 08, 2016 | 7 comments
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The First Black Student to Earn a Ph.D. in History at the University of Southern Mississippi
A half century after the racial integration of the University of Southern Mississippi, Tonya De’Nee Blair is the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in history at the university.
Dec 30, 2015 | 4 comments
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Black Teenager in Indiana Aces the SAT, the ACT and All Her AP Tests
Love Osunnuga is a 15-year-old girl who is a senior at St. Joseph High School in South Bend, Indiana. She skipped both the first and fifth grades so will graduate from high school this coming spring at the age of 16.
Aug 25, 2015 | 3 comments
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The First Black Professor at an Israeli University
Anbessa Teferra was appointed to the position of senior lecturer of Semitic languages at Tel Aviv University in Israel. He is the first immigrant from Ethiopia to be granted status as a tenured senior lecturer at an Israeli University.
Aug 03, 2015 | 4 comments
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The First African American President of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Evelyn F. Crayton, professor emerita at Auburn University in Alabama, is the new president of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The academy, with over 76,000 members, is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals.
Jul 14, 2015 | 8 comments
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Deborah Johnson Is the First African American to Win the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction
The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction is administered by the University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal. Johnson is the first woman and the first African American to win the prize.
Jul 06, 2015 | 0 comments
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Florida A&M University Confers Ph.D.s in Physics to Two Black Women
According to the National Science Foundation, 1,902 people earned Ph.D.s in physics at American universities in 2013. Only 18.8 percent were women and only 19 were Black. Now two Black women have earned Ph.D.s in physics at the same university in the same year.
Jun 26, 2015 | 0 comments
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The First Black Faculty Member in the 650-Year History of the University of Vienna
Adams Bodomo, from Ghana, was appointed professor and chair of the department of African languages and literatures at the University of Vienna in Austria. He is the former director of the African studies program at the University of Hong Kong and earlier taught at Stanford University.
Jun 19, 2015 | 0 comments
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Four Black Men Earn Doctoral Degrees From One Department at Ohio State
Four Black men earned doctorates this spring in the College of Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State under the mentorship of Dr. Terrell Strayhorn, the youngest full professor in the university’s history.
Jun 10, 2015 | 41 comments
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The First African American Dean at North Greenville University
H. Paul Thompson was named dean of the College of Humanities at North Greenville University in Tigerville, South Carolina. He is the first African American dean in the university’s history.
Jun 05, 2015 | 0 comments
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Rubin Jordan Is the First Recipient of a Fire Services Degree From Albany State University
Rubin Jordan, who has served as a firefighter for 23 years with the fire department in Albany, Georgia, is the first person to earn a bachelor of applied science in fire services administration degree from Albany State University.
Jun 02, 2015 | 0 comments
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Talmadge King Jr. to Lead the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
For the past nine years, Dr. King has been chair of the department of medicine at the university. He joined the faculty at the medical school in 1997 after teaching at the University of Colorado.
Jun 01, 2015 | 0 comments
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The Nation’s Top-Ranked University Debater Is an African American
Aaron Murphy, a senior at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, was named Speaker of the Year by the American Parliamentary Debate Association.
The New Dean of the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at the University of Michigan
Aaron Dworkin is an internationally acclaimed violinist and serves as founder and president of the Sphinx Organization, a nonprofit organization based in Detroit that aims to increase diversity in the performing arts.
Mar 30, 2015 | 0 comments
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The First Black Woman Graduate of LSU’s School of Architecture to Become a Licensed Architect
Only 315 African American women have become licensed architects in the United States. Nicole Hilton is the first Black woman graduate of the School of Architecture at Louisiana State University to pass the Architect Registration Examination.
Mar 24, 2015 | 0 comments
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Emory University’s Natasha Trethewey Is Now a Columnist for The New York Times Magazine
Professor Trethewey, who served two terms as Poet Laureate of the United States, will select a poem for publication each week and write a short introduction to the work.
Mar 11, 2015 | 0 comments
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Alcorn State University Alumna Becomes the First Black Woman Orthodontist in Mississippi
Chandra Minor recently opened Smile Design Orthodontics with offices in three cities. The Alcorn State University graduate is the first African American woman to practice orthodontics in the state of Mississippi.
Feb 25, 2015 | 4 comments
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Pomona College’s Claudia Rankine Makes Literary History
Professor Claudia Rankine of Pomona College in Claremont, California, is the first author to have a work nominated as a finalist in two categories in the 39-year history the National Book Critics Circle Awards.
Jan 26, 2015 | 0 comments
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Yale Scholar Named to University’s First Endowed Chair in Poetry
Elizabeth Alexander, who was selected to write a poem and read it at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009, has been a member of the faculty at Yale since 2000.
Jan 21, 2015 | 0 comments
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The First African American Endowed Professor in the LSU School of Education
Roland Mitchell was named the Jo Ellen Levy Yates Endowed Professor at Louisiana State University. He was also named interim associate dean of engagement research and graduate studies in the College of Human Sciences and Education.
Dec 03, 2014 | 5 comments
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The First African American to Win a Major Award in Aviation Education
I. Richmond Nettey is the associate dean of the College of Applied Engineering, Sustainability, and Technology at Kent State University in Ohio. He is being honored by the University Aviaton Association.
Dec 02, 2014 | 0 comments
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African American Debate Team Makes History
Chris Randall and Elijah Smith, both rising seniors at Rutgers University-Newark, were ranked fifth in the nation for the 2013-14 debate season. This is the highest-ranked position ever obtained by a team of African American debaters.
Jun 10, 2014 | 0 comments
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The First African American Dean of Dental Medicine at Case Western Reserve University
Dr. Kenneth B. Chance Sr. has been serving as a professor and chief of endodontics at the University of Kentucky. He is the former dean of the School of Dentistry at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.
Jun 09, 2014 | 2 comments
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Terrell Lamont Strayhorn: The Youngest Full Professor at Ohio State University
Dr. Strayhorn was promoted to full professor in the department of educational studies in the College of Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State University. The appointment makes him the youngest full professor at the university.
African American Man Elected Student Body President at Texas Woman’s University
Landon Dickerson is a junior from Houston who is following a pre-med track and majoring in biology. He was a student at historically Black Xavier University in New Orleans but transferred to Texas Woman’s University in 2012.
May 21, 2014 | 0 comments
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Howard University Graduate to Lead the American Bar Association
Paulette Brown, a graduate of Howard University and the Seton Hall University School of Law, will become president of the American Bar Association in August 2015. She will be the first African American woman to lead the ABA.
May 14, 2014 | 0 comments
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The First Graduate of Indiana University’s Ph.D. Program in African Diaspora Studies
Maria Eliza Hamilton Abegunde will be first student to be awarded a Ph.D. in African Diaspora studies at Indiana University. After receiving her degree, she will serve as a summer scholar at the National Endowment for the Humanities.
May 07, 2014 | 2 comments
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New Film Honors the First Black Woman to Earn a Ph.D. at Duke University
In 1967 Ida Stephens Owens received a Ph.D. in physiology from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She went on to conduct important research on drug biotransformation at the National Institutes of Health.
