Emory University in Atlanta has announced the appointment of two African American women to dean positions.
Erika Hayes James was appointed dean of the Goizueta Business School at the university. She has been serving as senior associate dean for executive education at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. She is the co-author of Leading Under Pressure: From Surviving to Thriving Before, During, and After a Crisis (Routledge, 2010).
Emory University Provost Claire Sterk stated, “Erika James has all of the qualities that we want for a leader at Goizueta. She brings a background of impressive scholarship and strong skills in academic administration, and she will work collaboratively with faculty, students, staff, alumni and supporters to take the school to the next level.”
Dr. James earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Pomona College in Claremont, California. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.
Bridgette Young Ross will be the dean of the chapel and spiritual life at Emory. For the past five years, Rev. Ross has been the assistant general secretary of the United Methodist Church General Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville, Tennessee. From 2000 to 2009, she was associate dean of the chapel at Emory. She will begin her new duties at Emory on July 1.
A native of Chicago, Rev. Ross is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she majored in management and marketing. She holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina and a master of divinity degree from the Gammon Seminary of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.
