Simone White has been named associate faculty director of the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a member of Penn’s department of English faculty since 2018 and currently holds the rank of associate professor. In addition to teaching, she has published several poetry collections, including Of Being Dispersed (Futurepoem Books, 2016).
Dr. White holds a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School, a master of fine arts degree from The New School in New York, and a Ph.D. in English from the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Jennifer Edwards-Johnson has been named associate dean for community academic programs in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University. She currently serves as an associate professor of family medicine and community assistant dean for the university’s Flint campus. As a doctor of osteopathic medicine, she also cares for patients in the Flint community.
Dr. Edwards-Johnson holds a master of public health degree from the University of Michigan, and her doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from Michigan State University.
Bryan K. Fair has been granted the title of Distinguished Teaching Professor in the School of Law at the University of Alabama. He first joined the faculty in 1991 and currently holds the title of Thomas E. Skinner Professor of Law. He is the author of Notes of a Racial Caste Baby: Colorblindness and the End of Affirmative Action (NYU Press 1997).
Professor Fair received his bachelor’s degree from Duke University and his law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Samantha Cross has been appointed as an associate professor of marketing and the F. W. Olin Distinguished Chair of Global Business at Babson College in Massachusetts. Earlier in her career, she was an assistant professor in the department of marketing and management at Iowa State University. Using multi-method approaches, her research examines cultural and sensory influences and societal forces on consumption, decision making, and innovation.
Dr. Cross is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, where she majored in management studies. She holds an MBA in international business from DePaul University in Chicago and a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of California, Irvine.
Dawn Meredith Simmons has been named the Monan Professor in Theatre Arts at Boston College. She is the co-producing artistic director of Front Porch Arts Collective, a Black theatre company dedicated to advancing racial equity in the Boston area. Previously, she served as executive director of Stage Source and director of performing arts at the Boston Center for the Arts. In 2008, she founded New Exhibition Room to produce provocative, political, and affordable theater events.
Professor Simmons received her bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Buffalo in New York and studied playwriting at Boston University.
Elsheika Pennerman has been named an assistant professor of education and coordinator of the principal licensure program at the University of Cincinnati. In her research, she uses theoretical lenses attentive to race, intersectional identities, positioning, and placemaking to examine school practices, structures, systems, and policies.
Dr. Pennerman holds a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of The Bahamas, a master’s degree in education from Northern Kentucky University, and a Ph.D. in educational studies from the University of Cincinnati.
