M. Christopher Brown II, president of Alcorn State University in Mississippi, has been chosen to receive the 2013 Troféu Raça Negra (Black Race Trophy) from the Honors Council of the Society of Afro-Brazilian Socio-Cultural Development. Dr. Brown was chosen to receive the award for Alcorn State University’s commitment to the educational of Afro-Brazilians, and the new partnerships being designed for exchanges between Alcorn and Brazilian universities.
Dr. Brown is a graduate of South Carolina State University. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky and a doctorate from Pennsylvania State University.
Tryan L. McMickens, an assistant professor of higher education at Suffolk University in Boston, has been selected to receive the Early Career Award from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. The award honors a recent graduate of the school who has shown outstanding service to the university and has made significant contributions to his or her field.
Dr. McMickens is a graduate of Tuskegee University in Alabama. He holds a master’s degree from Suffolk University and a doctorate in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Charlene Johnson, director of athletics at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg received the Jesse Jackson Sr. Sports Person of the Year Award at the 14th annual Creating Opportunity Conference in Atlanta sponsored by Rainbow PUSH.
Johnson has been athletics director for 10 years and has been at the university for 30 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from South Carolina State University.
Donald Mitchell Jr., assistant professor of higher education at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, received the John Zaugra Outstanding Research Publication Award from the Michigan College Personnel Association.
Dr. Mitchell joined the faculty at Grand Valley State in 2012. He is a graduate of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he majored in chemistry. Dr. Mitchell holds a master’s degree from Minnesota State University, Mankato and a doctorate in educational policy and administration from the University of Minnesota.
Dikgang Moseneke is the recipient of the inaugural Global Jurist of the Year Award from the Center for International Human Rights at the Northwestern University School of Law. Moseneke is the deputy chief justice of the South African Constitutional Court.
At the age of 15 he was convicted of anti-apartheid offenses and spent 10 years as a prisoner on Robbens Island. While imprisoned he earned a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from the University of South Africa.
