The Oakes College Provost House at the University of California, Santa Cruz will be renamed to honor emeritus professor and founding provost J. Herman Blake. Blake started working at the university in 1966 as a professor of sociology. He was selected to serve as the founding provost for Oakes in 1972 and stayed in that role until 1984, when he left to become president of Tougaloo College in Mississippi. Current Oakes provost, Regina Langhout was delighted with the renaming of the Oakes College Provost House. She stated, “It helps us to stay focused on our mission: to understand human diversity as an exceptional strength from which to engage in intellectual, academic, and personal inquiry to effect positive social and political change.”
Kesha Morant Williams, associate professor of communication arts and sciences as Pennsylvania State University-Berks, is the recipient of the 2018 Rex Crawley Service Award from the African American Communication and Culture Division/Black Caucus of the National Communication Association. Dr. Morant Williams is being recognized for her the work as part of the collaborative effort between Penn State Berks and Penn State Health St. Joseph. Dr. Morant Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from West Chester University in Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in humanities from Penn State, and a Ph.D. in communication and culture from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
