A Quartet of Black Scholars Who Are Undertaking New Assignments in Higher Education

Renita W. Marshall, professor of animal science and chair of the department of agriculture sciences at Southern Univerity in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been given the added duties of vice-chancellor for academic and student services at the university’s Ag Center and associate dean of the College of Agricultural, Family and Consumer Sciences.

Dr. Marshall earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Southern University. She holds a master’s degree in biomedical sciences from the University of Missouri–Columbia and a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Tuskegee University in Alabama.

André J. Thomas was named visiting professor of choral conducting and interim conductor of Yale Camerata for the 2020-21 season at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. Most recently, Dr. Thomas completed a 35-year tenure as the Owen F. Sellers Professor of Music, director of choral activities and professor of music education at Florida State University.

Dr. Thomas is a graduate of Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, where he majored in music. He holds a master’s degree in piano performance from Northwestern University and a doctorate in music from the University of Illinois.

Chassidy Bozeman was appointed a Clare Booth Luce Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Her research is focused on graph theory and linear algebra.

Dr. Bozeman is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University and holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Iowa State University. She is the third African American woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics at Iowa State.

Akinwumi Ogundiran, a professor in the departments of Africana studies, anthropology and history, was appointed a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of North Carolin at Charlotte. He chaired the Africana studies department at the university from 2008 to 2018. Dr. Ogundiran is editor-in-chief of the African Archaeological Review and the co-author of Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa: Archaeological Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Professor Ogundiran is a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and a Ph.D. from Boston University.