LaShanda Korley has been named chair of the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University. Dr. Korley works at the intersection of chemistry, engineering, and biology, using molecular design to address pressing global engineering challenges. She comes to NYU from the University of Delaware, where she led the Center for Plastics Innovation. Her recent research has centered on how renewable resources such as lignin and citric acid can serve as building blocks for new materials that match or exceed current performance requirements, while also ensuring a secure supply chain and leveraging non-food source competing waste streams.
Korley earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering as a dual-degree student between Clark Atlanta University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering with a concentration in polymer science and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ziette Hayes, dean of the James T. George School of Business at Hampton University in Virginia, has been appointed president of the HBCU Business Deans Roundtable for the 2026–2027 term. Dr. Hayes first joined the Hampton faculty in 2002 after 11 years in finance and business operations with General Electric. Her business expertise spans strategic planning, financial management, organizational leadership, and project execution.
Dr. Hayes is a graduate of Central State University in Ohio, where she majored in finance. She holds an MBA from Long Island University and a doctor of business administration degree from the University of Phoenix.
Lisa Anderson is interim co-director of the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Dr. Anderson is a semiotician whose research focuses on race, gender, and sexuality in culture, specifically in representational arts. Her most recent book is Black Women and the Changing Television Landscape (Bloomsbury, 2023). Earlier in her tenure at Arizona State, she was associate dean of academic affairs for the Graduate College.
Dr. Anderson holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, a master’s degree in theatre from Smith College in Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in theatre history and criticism from the University of Washington.
J. Kameron Carter has joined the Washington University faculty as a professor in the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. Dr. Carter most recently taught as a professor of African American studies, comparative literature, and religious studies at the University of California, Irvine. His research explores the intersections of religion, race, and public life, including how creative practices such as poetry and music can serve as sites of intellectual and spiritual inquiry. Dr. Carter is the author of Race: A Theological Account (Oxford University Press, 2008) and The Anarchy of Black Religion: A Mystic Song (Duke University Press, 2023).
A graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, Dr. Carter holds a master of theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.
Danya Pilgrim is a new assistant professor of history at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She is a specialist in African American history during the long nineteenth century. Dr. Pilgrim’s current book project explores the ways in which Black food workers utilized different forms of capital in shaping the evolution and development of Philadelphia’s catering trade.
Dr. Pilgrim is a graduate of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she majored in English language and literature. She earned master’s degrees at Wheaton College and the University of Delaware and a Ph.D. in African American and American studies from Yale University.
Sonia M. Gipson Rankin has been named interim associate dean for technology and innovation at the North Carolina Central University School of Law. Before joining the university in August, Professor Gipson Rankin taught at the University of New Mexico School of Law. She previously served six years as associate dean of University College and three years as associate director of the Africana studies program at the University of New Mexico. With academic training in both computer science and law, Professor Gipson Rankin’s work focuses on technology, artificial intelligence, and their implications for the legal profession and justice system
Professor Gipson Rankin holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Morgan State University in Baltimore and a juris doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Roderick Lee has been selected for a joint appointment with the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University. A faculty member since 2008, Dr. Lee is an associate professor at Penn State Harrisburg and an affiliate associate professor in the College of Education. His work centers on building capacity for artificial intelligence and computing education and advancing human-centered approaches to technology design and governance.
Dr. Lee holds five degrees from Penn State: a bachelor’s degree in marketing, a bachelor’s degree in information systems, an MBA, a master’s degree in information systems, and a Ph.D. in information sciences and technology.
Samantha N. Friar has been named associate dean of Reach Teachers College at Reach University in Oakland, California. Dr. Friar has more than two decades of education experience spanning from K-12 through higher education. She has been serving as Reach University’s coordinator of clinical capstone.
Dr. Friar is a graduate of Tuskegee University in Alabama, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master of education degree from North Park University in Chicago. and a doctorate in higher education leadership from National Louis University-Chicago.
