Taking on new roles relating to diversity are Edward Antonio at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, Jennifer Hamer at Pennsylvania State University, and Jeffrey Coleman at Framingham State University in Massachusetts.
Last fall, Pennsylvania State University announced plans for the center that it said would be dedicated to research and scholarship around racism and racial bias. Now, after installing a new president, the university’s plans for the new center have been abandoned.
Felecia Davis, an associate professor of architecture in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School at Pennsylvania State University, has been named the winner of the 2022 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum National Design Award in the Digital Design category for her work that explores the use of computational textiles.
Here is this week’s roundup of Black faculty members who have been appointed to new positions or given new duties at colleges and universities throughout the United States. If you have news for our appointments section, please email the information to contact@JBHE.com.
When he takes office on December 1, Dr. Grant will be the first person of color to lead the university. Since January 2021, Dr. Grant has served as chancellor of Pennsylvania State University-Berks. Earlier, he was dean of the College of Community and Public Service at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.
Professor Dumas, who has written, directed, produced or acted in more than 300 plays, joined the faculty at Penn State in 1995 and now holds the status of professor emeritus. He is presently a professor in residence at the African-American Theatre Program at the University of Louisville.
Kristina G. Douglass was the Joyce and Doug Sherwin Early Career Professor in the Rock Ethics Institute and assistant professor of anthropology and African studies at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Douglass’ research focuses on investigating human-environment interaction in Madagascar.
Pennsylvania State University is undertaking multiple initiatives, including a collaboration with North Carolina A&T State University and the BRIDGE project, a new mentoring initiative for undergraduates who are from underrepresented minority groups or are first-generation college students.
The Pennsylvania State University Dickinson Law School in Carlisle is creating an Antiracist Development Institute, a program offering organizations across the country systems design-based approaches to implementing antiracist practices, processes, and policies.
The researchers sent emails to a random list of 250,000 Americans. When the sender had a White-sounding name, they were 15 percent more likely to receive a response than emails where the sender had a Black-sounding name.
A native of Ghana, Albert Richardson was a professor emeritus of computer and electrical engineering at California State University, Chico. He joined the faculty there in 1989 and was named professor emeritus in 2012.
The new center will be dedicated to research and scholarship around racism and racial bias. It will be housed within the Social Science Research Institute, which aims to foster research addressing critical human and social problems.
Dr. Johnson has been serving as associate director of Pennsylvania State University Extension. Earlier in his career, he was assistant director of research and graduate research at Alcorn State University in Mississippi and vice chancellor for research and technology development at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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.
Taking on new roles as diversity officers are Larry P. Thomas at Pennsylvania State University, Sibby Anderson-Thompkins at Sewanee: The University of the South, Kauline Cipriani at Colorado State University, Lemuel W. Watson at Indiana University in Bloomington, and Norm Jones at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.
The scholars in new faculty posts are Kwame Dawes at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nadia Brown at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Christopher Wayne Robinson at the Pennsylvania State University Allegheny Campus in McKeesport, and Roderick A. Ferguson at Yale Universsity.
The new report presents the results of a survey of Black professors at the main and satellite campuses of Penn State regarding their experiences with racism, on the institutional and interpersonal levels, perpetrated by students, colleagues, administrators as well as the academic culture in which they work.
In 1983, Dr. Stiff joined the faculty of mathematics and science education at North Carolina State University. He rose through the ranks to become a full professor of mathematics education. At the time of his retirement in 2020, Dr. Stiff was the associate dean for faculty and academic affairs in the College of Education at the university.
The five Black scholars in new roles are Lauren Haynes at Duke University in North Carolina, Christopher Wayne Robinson at Pennsylvania State University-Greater Allegheny, Melanie McReynolds at Pennsylvania State University, Fitzroy B. Beckford at the University of Vermont, and Naïma Moustaïd-Moussa at Texas Tech University.
The Colored Conventions Project (CCP) is a scholarly and community research project focused on digitally preserving Black political activism from the 1830s to 1890s. The project operates two websites and its directors are releasing a new book on the initiative.
Eric Darnell Pritchard was appointed to the Brown Chair in English Literacy at the University of Arkansas. Angela Onwuachi-Willig is the first Ryan Roth Gallo and Ernest J. Gallo Professor at the Boston University School of Law and Christopher Tounsel has been named the inaugural Catherine Shultz Rein Early Career Professor at Penn State.
The three African Americans who have been appointed to administrative posts are Micah Griffin at Pennsylvania State University, Nontalie Morrow at the University of Georgia, and Keith Miles at Florida A&M University.
Dr. Grant joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas in 2017 as a visiting professor of art education. He also was affiliated with the African and African American studies, political science, and gender studies programs at the university.
The report, by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and Pennsylvania State University, reveals that segregation among schools in the same division contributes to half or more of all multiracial school segregation in Virginia’s metropolitan regions.
The new diversity executives are Trent Ball at Southeast Missouri State University, Norma Holland at the University of Rochester, Fatiah Tourney at the Abu Dhabi campus of New York University, Karen Armstrong at Pennsylvania State University, Stephany Rose Spaulding at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and Kamille Dean at Fordham Law School in New York.
An internal investigation following a report that the coach told a Black player that he would “loosen the noose that’s around your neck,” uncovered new undisclosed allegations that led to the resignation.
The appointees are Sheldon D. Fields at Penn State, Deidre Hill Butler at Union College in New York, Belinda Robnett at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Sonia Rucker at Southeast Missouri State University, Franklin Ellis at Vanderbilt University, and Nahomi Carlisle at Bunker Hill Community College.
The five Black scholars taking on new assignments are Nicole Patton Terry at Florida State University, Samuel Adu-Mireku at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. Suzzette Shaw Goldmon at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Kristina Douglass at Pennsylvania State University, and Ethlyn McQueen-Gibson at Hampton University in Virginia.
Dr. Collins served as the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering at Cornell University from 2010 to 2020. On August 1, 2020, he became the inaugural vice president and executive director of Virginia Tech’s new Innovation Campus in Alexandria, Virginia.
Taking on new faculty assignments are Candice Price at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, Tonya Mitchell-Spradlin at Pennsylvania State University, Shatema Threadcraft at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and Charrise Barron at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Taking on new teaching roles are Vanessa Williams at New York University, Bonzo Reddick at the Mercer University School of Medicine in Georgia, Miriam Merrill at Pomona College in Claremont, California, and Titichia M. Jackson at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Professor Kecia Thomas currently serves as senior associate dean in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia. She is the division dean for the social and behavioral sciences and also manages the college’s faculty affairs functions. Dr. Thomas is also a professor of industrial/organizational psychology and African American studies.
Danielle M. Conway, dean of the Dickinson Law School at Pennsylvania State University, was named the 2020 recipient of the Belva Ann Lockwood Award from George Washington University Law School. The award recognizes the accomplishments and pioneering spirit of women leaders in the legal profession.
Dr. Gomes began his career in 1971 at Howard University as a lecturer in what was then the department of sociology and anthropology. He served on the faculty for 49 years.
In 2004, there were 83 tenured or tenure-track Black faculty at Penn State. By 2018, the number dropped to 68. In 2004, tenured and tenure-track African American faculty comprised 76.1 percent of all Black professors, however by 2018 this proportion had decreased to 60.7 percent.
Currently, Dr. Harriet Nembhard is the Eric R. Smith Professor of Engineering and head of the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University. Earlier, Dr. Nembhard was a professor at Pennsylvania State University.
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