Alphonso Simpson Jr., chair of the department of liberal studies at Western Illinois University in Macomb, was elected vice president of the National Council of Black Studies. The council is based at the University of Cincinnati.
Dr. Simpson is a graduate of Alabama State University, where he majored in music education. He holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Wyoming.
Enzley Mitchell IV was appointed assistant professor and chair of the department of kinesiology at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana. He had been serving on the faculty at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
Dr. Enzley is a graduate of Spring Arbor University in Michigan. He holds a master’s degree in recreation and sport management from Indiana State University and a Ph.D. in sport administration from Concordia University.
Crystal R. Sanders, an associate professor of history and African American studies at Pennsylvania State University, was named director of the Africana Research Center at the university. Dr. Sanders is the author of A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi’s Black Freedom Struggle (University of North Carolina Press, 2016).
Dr. Sanders is a graduate of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where she majored in history and public policy. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Fred M. Ssewamala is the new William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. He joined the faculty in 2017 after teaching at Columbia University in New York City from 2003 to 2017.
Dr. Ssewamala is a graduate of Makerere University in his native Uganda. He earned a master of social work degree and a Ph.D. in social work at Washington University.
Kibibi Voloria Mack-Shelton was appointed professor and chair of Africana studies at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. She was a professor of history at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Earlier, she taught at the University of Richmond. Dr. Mack-Shelton is the author or editor of several books including Parlor Ladies and Ebony Drudges: African American Women (University of Tennessee Press, 1999).
Professor Mack-Shelton is a graduate of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and a Ph.D. in history from Binghamton University in New York.
Vashaun Wrice was named professor of military science and chair of the department of military science at Virginia State University. He has served in the U.S. Army for 17 years.
Wrice is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he majored in engineering psychology. He holds a master’s degree in organizational psychology from Columbia University and is studying for a master’s degree in higher education administration from the University of Louisville.
