New Assignments for Five African American Scholars in Academia

J. Luke Wood, the Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Education at San Diego State University has been selected to serve as vice president for student affairs and campus diversity.

Dr. Wood holds a bachelor’s degree in Black history and politics and a master’s degree in higher education from California State University, Sacramento. He earned a second master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy from Arizona State University.

Riché J. Daniel Barnes was promoted to associate professor of gender studies and granted tenure at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She is a sociocultural anthropologist whose teaching and research specializations are at the intersection of Black feminist theories, work, and family policy, and raced, gendered, and classed identity formation. Dr. Barnes is the author of Raising the Race: Black Career Women Redefine Marriage, Motherhood, and Community (Rutgers University Press, 2015).

Dr. Barnes is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta. She holds a master’s degree from Georgia State University and a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta.

Destine Nock was appointed an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the department of engineering and public policy and the department of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She has been serving as a postdoctoral fellow and adjunct professor at the university.

Dr. Nock is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University, where she double majored in electrical engineering and applied mathematics. As a Mitchell Scholar, she earned a master’s degree in leadership for sustainable development at Queens University of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Dr. Nook holds a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

André L. Churchwell, a professor of medicine, biomedical engineering and radiology and radiological sciences, chief diversity officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center and senior associate dean for diversity affairs in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, has been named vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer for Vanderbilt University. He has been serving in the post on an interim basis for the past year.

Dr. Churchwell is a magna cum laude graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering. He earned his medical degree at Harvard University.

Sampson Gholston has been promoted to full professor of engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He joined the faculty at the university in 1997.

Dr. Gholston is a graduate of Austin Peay State University in Clarksdale, Tennessee, where he majored in engineering technology. He holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Alabama and a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

UCLA and Charles Drew University of Medicine Receive Funding to Support Equity in Neuroscience

Through $9.8 million in funding, the Dana Foundation will establish the UCLA-CDU Dana Center for Neuroscience & Society, which aims to gain a better understanding of the neuroscience needs of historically underrepresented communities in Los Angeles.

American Academy of Physician Associates Launches Program to Increase Diversity in the Field

"Increasing the representation of healthcare providers from historically marginalized communities is of utmost importance for improving health outcomes in all patients,” said Jennifer M. Orozco, chief medical officer of the American Academy of Physician Associates.

James Crawford Named Sole Finalist for President of Texas Southern University

Texas Southern University has named James W. Crawford as the sole finalist for president. He has spent the past two years as president of Felician University in New Jersey and has over 30 years of service in the United States Navy.

Report Reveals Black Students Significantly More Likely to Drop Out of Postsecondary Education

In analyzing data of postsecondary education among students who were in ninth-grade in 2009, the study found Black students were significantly less likely than their White peers to enroll in and complete all levels of postsecondary education.

Featured Jobs