Heather Tookes is the inaugural vice provost for faculty and academic affairs at Yale University. Dr. Tookes, a professor of finance at the Yale School of Management, has been a faculty member with the Ivy League university since 2004. Earlier in her tenure, she served as deputy dean for faculty at Yale School of Management. Her research focuses on how market liquidity, leverage, and trading frictions impact firms and financial markets.
Dr. Tookes is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she majored in economics. She holds a Ph.D. in management and finance from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Yaa Oparebea Ampofo is a new assistant professor of teaching in the Sustainability and Education Program at Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City. Her research focuses on the anthropology of socio-ecological change, exploring how education can better support human and planetary well-being.
Dr. Ampofo is a graduate of Yale University, where she majored in environmental studies. She received her doctorate from the department of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Curtis R. Govan Jr., II, is a new assistant professor of kinesiology at Jarvis Christian University in Hawkins, Texas. Professor Govan has a background in both higher education and K-12 education, including experience in teaching, curriculum development, and creating student-learning environments.
Govan holds a bachelor’s degree from Jarvis Christian University and a master’s degree in kinesiology from Dallas Baptist University.
Shaun Ossei-Owusu has joined the University of California College of Law, San Francisco, as the Wiley Manuel Visiting Scholar and Professor with the Center for Racial and Economic Justice. Dr. Ossei-Owusu, the Presidential Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, has held prior visiting appointments at Harvard University, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Southern California. His scholarship focuses on how local and federal governments meet their statutory and constitutional obligations to protect marginalized groups. He also studies issues tied to inequality and the legal profession.
Dr. Ossei-Owusu is a graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois. He earned a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania and both a juris doctorate and a Ph.D. in African American studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
Following a recent endowed gift from a School of Music alumnus, Arnold Holland has been installed as the inaugural Douglas G. Stewart Dean of the College of Arts at California State University, Fullerton. Dr. Holland, a professor of art, was appointed interim dean of the college in 2021 and was promoted to permanent dean in 2023. A faculty member since 1998, he researches semiotics, typography, best practices in service learning, and theory-to-practice gaps in the visual arts.
Dr. Holland holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic design from Arizona State University, a master of fine arts degree in visual communication from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a doctorate in higher education leadership from Cal State Fullerton.
Lyrric Jackson has been appointed director of Spelman College’s professional dance company, the Spelman Dance Theater. Jackson is a lecturer in the HBCU’s department of dance performance and choreography, where she teaches courses in contemporary modern dance. She also serves as the arts education coordinator for dance at the Fulton County Southwest Arts Center.
Jackson earned her bachelor’s degree in drama and dance from Spelman College. She holds a master’s degree in arts administration and a master of fine arts degree from the Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia.
