Three African American Scholars Taking on New Assignments in Higher Education

Simone T.A. Phipps, an associate professor of management at Middle Georgia State University in Macon, was named an associate research fellow at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge in England.

Dr. Phipps is a graduate of Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, where she majored in management information science. She holds an MBA from Ohio University and a Ph.D. in human resource and leadership development from Louisiana State University.

Thelma Hurd was appointed director of medical education at the University of California, Merced. In this role she will also teach undergraduate and graduate courses in surgery on the Fresno campus of the University of California San Francisco. For the past four years, Hurd has served on the Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District’s Health Science Academy Executive Board. Earlier, she served on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, the Breast Surgery Department at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, and the department of surgery at the University at Buffalo.

Dr. Hurd is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She earned her medical degree at Rutgers University.

Raegan W. Durant, an associate professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Division of Preventive Medicine, has been given the added responsibilities of principle investigator for the Resource Center for Minority Aging Research. The center is a collaborative partnership of the Morehouse School of Medicine, Tuskegee University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Durant joined the faculty at the university in 2006. He is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he majored in biology. Dr. Durant holds a master of public health degree from Harvard University and a medical doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

The University of New Mexico Partners With the University of the West Indies

The University of New Mexico and the University of the West Indies Five Island Campus, Antigua and Barbuda, recently created a new partnership designed to expand immersion opportunities for students at both institutions.

The Huge Racial Gap in College Completion Rates

According to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the percentage of students who began college in the fall of 2018 and earned a credential within six years rose to 61.1 percent. For Black students who enrolled in 2018, 43.8 percent had earned a degree or other credential within six years. This is more than 17 percentage points below the overall rate. And the racial gap has increased in recent years.

American-Born Layli Maparyan Appointed President of the University of Liberia

Dr. Maparyan, a distinguished academic and prolific scholar, had been serving as the executive director of the Wellesley Centers for Women and a professor of African Studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

Featured Jobs