Four African American Scholars Appointed to Dean Posts at Colleges and Universities

Denise Rush has been named dean of interior architecture at Boston Architectural College. She has served as interim dean since 2018. She first joined the college’s faculty in 2013 as the first-ever director of undergraduate interior design.

Rush is a graduate of Michigan State University where she majored in interior design. She holds a master’s degree in nonprofit management from Spertus Institute of Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago, Illinois.

Emory H. Woodard, IV has been named dean of graduate studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He is an associate professor in the department of communication and the coordinator of media studies at the university. He has been a Villanova faculty member since 2000.

Dr. Woodard is a graduate of the University of Virginia. He holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. both in communication from the University of Pennsylvania.

Tamara Brown has been named executive dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of North Texas. She most recently served as interim dean of the graduate college at Prairie View A&M University in Texas.

Dr. Brown holds a master of divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. both in clinical psychology from the University of Illinois.

Charles Isbell has been named dean and the John P. Imlay Jr. Chair in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute for Technology. He currently serves as a professor and executive associate dean of the College of Computing. He has been a Georgia Tech faculty member since 2002.

Dr. Isbell is a graduate of Georgia Tech. He holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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