Nicole Prudent, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine, has announced her retirement. A native of Haiti, she dedicated her career to serving the Haitian community in Massachusetts, the third largest in the country with approximately 46,000 immigrants. In her years at Boston Medical Center, she co-founded the Haitian American Public Health Initiatives and Youth and Family Enrichment Services to help newly arrived Haitian immigrant families thrive and raise healthy children while establishing their new life in America. Additionally, she founded Open Access to Music Education for Children, a program open to students for all ages and abilities that offers free private music lessons taught by more than a dozen professional music educators.
Dr. Prudent earned her medical doctorate from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara in Mexico.
Blake D. Morant, dean of the George Washington University Law School, has announced he will step down from his leadership role at the end of the current academic year. During his tenure as dean, he oversaw a large rise in applicants to the law school, launched the George Washington in New York Program, enriched the Foundations of Practice Program, and accomplished the school’s first curricula reform in 32 years. Before his appointment as dean in 2014, he served seven years as dean and professor of law at the Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After a sabbatical leave, Morant will rejoin the faculty at George Washington University Law School as the Robert Kramer Research Professor of Law.
Professor Morant holds a bachelor’s degree and juris doctorate both from the University of Virginia.
Frankie Jeffries, longtime director of alumni affairs and sustained giving at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, retired on February 1, 2019. She began her 31-year career at the college as a volunteer in the admissions office. Six months later, she was hired as a recruiter, and a year after that, she began director of admissions. Jeffries has served as director of alumni relations and sustained giving for the past 13 years. In this role, she has been the liaison between the college and alumni, working to keep graduates connected to the college, including coordinating national alumni association chapters’ events with campus activities, especially commencement and homecoming.
Jeffries holds a bachelor’s degree in social science from LeMoyne-Owen College and a master’s degree in education from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville.
Michael Adewumi, recently retired vice provost for global programs at Pennsylvania State University, has been granted emeritus status by the university. He joined the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences faculty in the mid-1980s. He became vice provost for global programs in 2007 and retired on December 31, 2018. On January 2, 2019 he became executive vice president for academic affairs with IES, a major international education firm in Chicago. The university granted him the titles of vice provost emeritus for global programs and professor emeritus of petroleum and natural gas engineering.
Dr. Adewumi is a graduate of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria where he majored in petroleum engineering. He holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. both in gas engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Willie Hill Jr., director of the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, retired on February 8, 2019. Before coming to the University of Massachusetts, Dr. Hill served as a music professor and assistant dean of the College of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He also has 20 years of experience in instrumental music education in the Denver Public Schools. During his tenure at the Fine Arts Center, he has been committed to diverse programming and community outreach. Because of his leadership, more than 4,500 students from more than 100 local schools see a performance at the center each year.
Dr. Hill holds a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
