Duchess Harris was named the DeWitt Wallace Professor of American Studies at Macalester College in Minnesota. In 2026, she published Black Feminist Politics: From the Voting Rights Act to the Kamala Harris Vice Presidency (1965–2025) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026) and Meghan Markle: Essays on Monarchy, Race, and Colonialism (University of Arizona Press, 2026).
Professor Harris holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, and a juris doctorate from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Minnesota.
Samson Okoth Opondo was promoted to full professor of political science and Africana studies at Vassar College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution in Poughkeepsie, New York. His research focuses on “the mediation of estrangement” and the emergence of diplomatic and colonial cultures and subjects in Africa. He is the author of Diplomatic Para-citations: Genre, Foreign Bodies, and the Ethics of Co-Habitation (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022).
Professor Opondo, who joined the Vassar faculty in 2012, is a graduate of Moi University in Kenya. He earned a master’s degree from Keele University in England and a Ph.D. from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
Christy Swinson was promoted to associate dean of the School of Nursing at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. Dr. Swinson has served in the role on an interim basis for the past five months. She first joined the university in 2014 as an adjunct lecturer and is now a tenured associate professor. Her research interests include adult health and culturally competent care.
Dr. Swinson earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She holds a doctor of nursing practice degree in nursing leadership from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
La’Tesha Sampson is the new director of the master of social work degree program at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. In addition to her new role, Dr. Sampson will continue to serve as director of the university’s master of public administration degree program. Her research and scholarly interests focus on the intersection of sexual abuse, religion and spirituality, and trauma-informed clinical practice, with particular attention to the ways faith, identity, and systemic inequities shape healing and resilience among survivors.
Dr. Sampson holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Syracuse University in New York. She earned a master of public administration degree from the Metropolitan College of New York, a master of social work degree from Kean University in Union, New Jersey, and a Ph.D. in Christian counseling and psychology from Northwestern Theological Seminary.
