The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance has appointed acclaimed musical theatre artist and educator Michael McElroy as the new chair of the school’s department of musical theatre. McElroy, who is a Grammy-nominated vocal arranger, composer, and leader in forging diversity initiatives for the performing arts, begins his tenure in September 2021 as the Arthur E. and Martha S. Hearron Endowed Professor of Musical Theatre. For the past 10 years, he has been on the faculty at New York University.
Professor McElroy holds a bachelor’s degree in theater from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, associate professor and assistant dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the department of public health and community medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, was appointed the Julia A. Okoro Professor in Black Maternal Health. She was an assistant professor in public health at Montclair State University in New Jersey before coming to Tufts.
Dr. Amutah-Onukagha holds bachelor’s degrees in public health and Africana studies from Rutgers University in New Jersey. She earned a master of public health degree from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in maternal and child health from the University of Maryland School of Public Health.
Lamonte Aidoo was named the Kiser Family Associate Professor of Romance Studies at Duke University. He joined the faculty at Duke oi 2012. Dr. Aidoo is the author of Slavery Unseen: Sex, Power, and Violence in Brazilian History (Duke University Press, 2018).
Professor Aidoo holds a Ph.D. from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Julie Dash, distinguished professor of documentary filmmaking in the department of art & visual culture at Spelman College in Atlanta, was named a Diana King Endowed Professor in Film and Filmmaking, Television, and Related Media. She joined the college’s faculty in 2017. Professor Dash’s 1991 independent film Daughters of the Dust, won the Sundance Film Festival’s Excellence in Cinematography Award.
Professor Dash is a graduate of City College of New York, where she majored in film production. She holds a master of fine arts degree in television production from the University of California, Los Angeles.
