Tryan L. McMickens is the interim associate dean of the School of Education. For the past five years, Dr. McMickens has been the coordinator for the HBCU’s master’s degree program in higher education administration. Before joining NCCU, he was interim director of operations and strategic initiatives at the University of Richmond School of Arts and Sciences in Virginia and director of the administration of higher education program at Suffolk University in Boston. As a scholar and full professor of higher education, Dr. McMickens has conducted extensive research on HBCUs, qualitative methods, and college mental health.
An HBCU graduate, Dr. McMickens earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration and sales and marketing from Tuskegee University in Alabama. He holds a master’s degree in administration of higher education from Suffolk University and an educational doctorate in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Katrina Smith is the interim associate dean of clinical legal education and experiential learning at the School of Law. An NCCU Law faculty member since 2022, Smith is an assistant clinical professor of law who teaches courses on family law, evidence, appellate advocacy pleadings, and practice. She also serves as director of the HBCU’s Family Law Clinic and coordinator for the law school’s competition teams. Her legal expertise includes family law, landlord-tenant law, intellectual property, and business law. Previously, Smith practiced law throughout North Carolina’s Triangle region.
A three-time NCCU alumna, Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, a second bachelor’s degree in family and consumer sciences, and a juris doctorate.
Nakia Davis is the new associate dean for academic affairs at the School of Law. Professor Davis, a faculty member since 2006, previously served as the law school’s associate dean of clinical legal education and experiential learning. She has served in several other capacities at the HBCU, including co-director and facilitator of the NCCU School of Law Virtual Justice Project, co-director of the Performance-Based Admission Program, and co-chair of the law school’s 2018–2019 American Bar Association Site Visit Preparation Committee. Before transitioning to academia, Professor Davis practiced family law in Durham, North Carolina.
Davis received her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her juris doctorate from North Carolina Central University.
