Stephanie Boddie was recently named The Fuller Family Endowed Chair for Social Justice in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University in Texas. A Baylor faculty member since 2017, she studies issues like food insecurity, poverty and social services, and how churches meet the needs around them. Before joining the Baylor community, she was an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
A graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Dr. Boddie earned her master of social work degree and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Marie C. Johns is the 2025-2026 Gwendolyn S. and Colbert I. King Endowed Chair in Public Policy at Howard University. A former member of Howard’s board of trustees, Johns has over 30 years of experience in business, civic, and government service. She previously served as president of Verizon Washington and was deputy administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2010 to 2013. Currently, she is CEO of PPC-Leftwich, a minority/woman-led consulting firm in Washington, D.C.
Johns holds a bachelor’s degree and a master of public administration degree both from Indiana University.
King Britt is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in Digital Media and Learning at the University of California, San Diego. Currently teaching as a professor of computer music, he has spent more than 30 years as a producer, composer, and performer. With his new funding from the endowed chair, he plans to compose, record, and perform a collaborative album that representes the strengths of faculty and students in the university’s department of music, as well as those affiliated with the interdisciplinary computing in the arts major.
Professor Britt studied music and advertising at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Del Wright, Jr. has been named one of two inaugural recipients of the Cheney C. Joseph Endowed Professorship at the Louisiana State University Paul M. Herbert Law Center. He first joined LSU Law in 2024 as the Vinson & Elkins Endowed Professor. A former prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, he focuses his research on crypto and the regulation of blockchain technologies.
A graduate of the University of Maryland, Professor Wright holds a juris doctorate from the University of Chicago School of Law and a master of public policy degree from Harvard University.
Ibraheem Karaye has been named the Joseph L. Dionne Endowed Academic Chair in Curriculum and Teaching at Hofstra University in New York. An associate professor of population health, Dr. Karaye was recently recognized among the world’s top 2 percent most-cited scientists in the 2025 Stanford University-Elsevier global rankings. His scholarship centers on the intersection of social vulnerability and health outcomes, disasters and injury epidemiology, and public health measurement.
A graduate of Bayero University in Nigeria, Dr. Karaye holds a master’s degree and doctorate both in public health from Texas A&M University.
