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.
Taking on new roles are Cletis Earle at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Sherwin E. James at Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, and Marlon C. Lynch at the University of Utah.
B. Stephen Carpenter II joined the faculty at Pennsylvania State University in 2011. He is a professor of art education and African American studies and has been serving as interim director of the School of Visual Arts at the university.
About half of all Millennium Scholars at Penn State have gone on to be accepted in doctoral degree programs in STEM fields. The first two are expected to receive their Ph.D.s this coming spring.
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 duties are Esther Obonyo at Pennsylvania State University, Larry Walker at the University of Central Florida, Ayodeji Ogunnaike at Bowdoin College, Riché Barnes at Mount Holyoke College, Noran L. Moffett at Fayetteville State University, and J. Camille Hall at the University of Tennessee.
Under the agreement, researchers at the University of the District of Columbia and the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University will work together on projects relating to advanced materials and manufacturing, as well as cybersecurity.
Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Pennsylvania State University has announced that it has hired nine scholars who will all be affiliated with the university’s department of African American studies. Seven of the nine hires are Black scholars.
Stacie J. Fairley is joining the faculty on the Georgia campus of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Gary Bailey, a professor of practice in the School of Social Work at Simmons University in Boston, was named an assistant dean, and Sarah J. Williams joined the faculty at Pennsylvania State University’s Dickinson Law School.
Some researchers suggest that social capital may decline because people retreat into their shells when faced with rising diversity — rejecting newcomers but also pulling back on engagement with people of their own ethnic group in an effort to shelter themselves.
Taking on new roles are Maria del Guadalupe “Lupe” Davidson at West Virginia University, Jessica Scoffield of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Tina M. Harris at Louisiana State University, Rodney Priestley at Princeton University in New Jersey, and Lynette Yarger at Pennsylvania State University.
Those appointed to new administrative positions are Assata Zerai at the University of New Mexico, Sean C. Garrick at the University of Illinois, Alexis Smith at the Mississippi University for Women, Bulaong Ramiz-Hall at the University of Kansas, and Christopher Jefferson at Pennsylvania State University.
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