Melvin Shipp, dean of the College of Optometry at Ohio State University was named Optometrist of the Year by the American Optometric Association. Dr. Shipp has been dean at Ohio State since 2004. Previously, he was professor and assistant dean for clinical services at the University of Alabama Birmingham.
Dr. Shipp is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Optometry. He holds a master of public health degree from Harvard University and a doctor of public health degree from the University of Michigan.
G. Reginald Daniel, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, received the 2012 Loving Prize from the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival in Los Angeles. Established in 2008, the prize is given to artists, storytellers, and community leaders who have shown a dedication to celebrating the “mixed” experience. Professor Daniel was recognized for his scholarship of multiracial identity. He is the author of More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order (Temple University Press). His latest book is Machado de Assis: Multiracial Identity and the Brazilian Novelist (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012).
Professor Daniel holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Lekan Oguntoyinbo, an associate professor of journalism and mass communication at South Dakota State University, won the first prize award in the commentary category from the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Professor Oguntoyinbo writes a bi-weekly column for the Atlanta Voice. He was honored for a series on the Mau Mau independence fighters in Kenya in the 1940s and 1950s.
A native of Nigeria, Oguntoyinbo is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University and holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Alabama.
