Three African American Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Named Professorships

Kami Chavis has been named the R. Hugh and Nolie Haynes Professor of Law at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, effective July 1. Professor Chavis will also serve as the founder and director of the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Reform. She is currently vice provost and professor of law at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Professor Chavis joined the faculty there in 2006.

Professor Chavis earned a bachelor’s degree from the Univerity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.

William Clemons was appointed the Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professor of Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. His lab investigates how membrane proteins are made and inserted into cell membranes and the chemistry of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of sugars onto lipids. He has taught at Caltech since 2005.

Dr. Clemons is a graduate of Virginia Tech, where he majored in biochemistry. He earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Utah.

Monica Peek has been named the Ellen H. Block Professor for Health Justice in the department of medicine at the University of Chicago. She also serves as the associate director of the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translational Research. Dr. Peek’s research pursues health equity and social justice, with a focus on promoting equitable doctor-patient relationships among racial minorities, integrating the medical and social needs of patients, and addressing healthcare discrimination and structural racism that impact health outcomes.

Dr. Peek is a graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She holds a master of public health degree and a medical doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

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