Two African American Women Honored With Notable Awards

Berenecea J. Eanes, vice president for student affairs at California State University, Fullerton, was honored by NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and Talitha M. Washington, associate professor of mathematics at Howard University won the Black Engineer of the Year STEM Innovator Award.

A Trio of African Americans Who Have Been Selected to Receive Prestigious Honors

The honorees are Mercy Mumba of the College of Nursing at the University of Alabama, Paulette Brown Bracey, professor of library science at North Carolina Central University, and LaDelle Olion, professor of special education at Fayetteville State Univeraity in North Carolina.

Natasha Trethewey Elected Chancellor of the American Academy of Poets

Natasha Trethewey, the Board of Trustees Professor of English at Northwestern University, has been named one of two new chancellors of the American Academy of Poets. Since it was formed in 1946, only 115 poets have been elected to the academy.

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Revokes Honor for Professor Angela Davis

In September of 2018, the ‪Birmingham Civil Rights Institute selected Angela Davis to receive the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award at its annual gala in February. That decision has now been changed and the event has been cancelled. Dr. Davis believes her support of Palestinian rights prompted the decision.

Lucile Adams-Campbell Honored as a 2018 Washingtonian of the Year

Lucile Adams-Campbell is a professor of oncology, associate director for minority health and health disparities research at the Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. She was the first African American women to earn a Ph.D. in epidemiology.

Drew Lanham Wins Prize for Environmental Leadership From the National Audubon Society

J. Drew Lanham, the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology at Clemson University in South Carolina, will receive this year's Dan W. Lufkin Prize for Environmental Leadership, which honors individuals who have dedicated their lives to the environment and conservation.

Two African American College Leaders Honored With Notable Awards

Paula A. Johnson, president of Wellesley College in Massachusetts has received the 2018 Social Justice Award from Eastern Bank and Phoebe A. Haddon, chancellor at Rutgers University-Camden, has received the 2019 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of American Law Schools.

Emery Brown Wins the 2018 Dickinson Prize in Science From Carnegie Mellon University

The award recognizes substantial achievements or sustained progress in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, computer science, or mathematics. Dr. Brown is only African American, to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine.

Three Black Scholars Presented With Notable Awards

Donald “DJ” Mitchell, Jr., professor of higher education leadership at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, Gina Athena Ulysse, professor of anthropology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and Kofi Lomotey, the Bardo Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership at Western Carolina University were all recognized for their work.

Justin Phillip Reed Wins 2018 National Book Award for Poetry

Justin Phillip Reed, a former junior writer-in-residence at Washington University in St. Louis, has received the 2018 National Book Award for Poetry. He is a graduate of Tusculum College in Greenville, Tennessee.

Lt. James R. Polkinghorne Honored with Historic Marker at Florida A&M University

James R. Polkinghorne enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force right before his senior year at Florida A&M University. He completed pilot training at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama and in 1944 was sent to Italy as a squadron leader. During a combat mission, his airplane went missing and its crew was never found.

Two African American Scholars Honored With Prestigious Awards

The honorees are Monica Walker, dean of development education and special academic programs at the Community College of Baltimore County, and Brandon Gamble, dean of student success at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama.

Jeffrey Stewart Wins a National Book Award for His Biography of Alain Locke

Jeffrey C. Stewart is a professor in the department of Black studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He won the National Book Award for his biography of Harlem Renaissance leader and Rhodes Scholar Alain Locke.

Honors and Awards Bestowed on a Trio of African American Administrators in Higher Education

The honorees are Franchon Glover, chief diversity officer at the College of Willliam and Mary, A. Eugene Washington, chancellor for health affairs and CEO of Duke University Health System, and Tony Allen, provost ane executive vice president at Delaware State University.

St. Cloud State University Names Academic Building After its First Black Graduate

Ruby Cora Webster, the daughter of former slaves, was born in Ohio and moved with her family to St. Cloud, Minnesota, where she attended high school. Webster graduated from what is now St. Cloud State University in 1909 with a degree in elementary education.

West Virginia State University Honors Alumnus Earl Lloyd, the First Black Man to Play...

Historically Black West Virginia State University will recognize Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame member and alumnus Earl Lloyd with the naming of a street on campus in his honor. The basketball legend passed away on February 26, 2015.

A Trio of African American Scholars Honored With Prestigious Awards

The honorees are Patrick T. Smith, an associate research professor at Duke Divinity School, Barbara Ransby, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Dawn Mellion-Patin, a vice chancellor at Southern University in Lousiana.

Honors or Awards for Five Black Scholars From the Academic World

The honorees are Jerome H. Holland, former president of what is now Delaware State University, Tequila Harris of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Zachery S. Mitcham of North Carolina Central University, Taiyon J. Coleman of St. Catherine University in Minnesota, and Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, who is affiliated with Cornell University.

Princeton University’s Tera Hunter Wins Book Awards From the American Historical Association

Tera W. Hunter, the Edwards Professor of History and professor of African American studies at Princeton University in New Jersey, has been awarded the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in women's history and/or feminist theory as well as the Littleton-Griswold Prize in U.S. law and society from the American Historical Association.

Recent Honors and Awards for African Americans in Higher Education

Here is a listing of a group of African Americans in higher education who have been honored by colleges and universities or who have received notable awards from other organizations.

University of North Carolina at Asheville Honors Two Black Faculty Couples

The University of North Carolina at Asheville has announced that it will rename the Humanities Lecture Hall to honor two African American couples who were among the first Black faculty members at the university.

Aaron Oforlea Wins Award from the College Language Association for His Debut Book

Aaron N. Oforlea, an associate professor in the English department at Washington State University, has won the Creative Scholarship Award from the College Language Association. The international honor recognizes excellence in literary criticism.

Notable Honors for Two African American Scholars

The Oakes College Provost House at the University of California, Santa Cruz will be renamed to honor emeritus professor and founding provost J. Herman Blake. Kesha Morant Williams of Pennsylvania State University is being recognized by the National Communication Association.

Brown University Renames Building to Honor Two Early Black Graduates

The J. Walter Wilson Building will now be known as Page-Robinson Hall in honor of Inman Edward Page, one of the first two Black graduates of Brown in 1877, and Ethel Tremaine Robinson, who became the first Black woman to graduate from Brown in 1905.

New Research Institute at the University of Ghana to Be Named for Yale’s Lamin...

The new research center, which will be formally inaugurated in early 2020, will focus on designing research projects on various topics on religion and society in Africa. Professor Sanneh taught at the University of Ghana from 1975 to 1978.

Princeton University’s Wallace Best Wins Book Award From the American Academy of Religion

Wallace Best, professor of religion and African American studies and associated faculty member in the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University, has received the 2018 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Textual Studies.

A Trio of African American Women Honored With Prestigious Awards

The honorees are Valerie Kinloch, the Renee and Richard Goldman Dean of the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh, Menah Pratt-Clarke, vice president of strategic affairs and vice provost at Virginia Tech, and Andrea Scott, who teaches Spanish professor at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis.

Joseph Carter Corbin is a 2018 Inductee Into the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of...

The son of former Virginia slaves, Dr. Corbin was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1833. He was the third African American to attend Ohio University and the second to complete a bachelor's degree. He founded and led the educational institution now known as the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff for 27 years.

Honors and Awards for Four Black Scholars or Administrators

The honorees are Lance R. Collins, dean of engineering at Cornell University, La'Kitha Hughes, a facilities administrator at Jackson State University in Mississippi, architect David Adjaye, who was honored by Washington University in St. Louis and Jackie Hankins-Kent of Temple University.

Three African American Women Receive Notable Honors or Awards

The late Wilma L. Moore of Indiana University Libraries has had a scholarship named in her honor. Lenora Helm Hammonds of North Carolina Central University was named Artist-in-Resident at the University of Pretoria and Talitha Washington of Howard University was honored by the Mathematical Association of America.

Condoleezza Rice to Be Honored by the American Political Science Association

The announcement that Dr. Rice would be the recipient of the Hubert Humphrey Award has upset some members of the political science field. Over 130 scholars have signed a petition calling for the American Political Science Association to revoke Dr. Rice's award.

Boston College Psychologist Janet E. Helms Honored With Two Lifetime Achievement Awards

Janet E. Helms, the Augustus Long Professor at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, was presented with the Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award in Counseling Psychology by the Society of Counseling Psychology and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race.

Two African American Women Named Fellows of the American Chemical Society

Amanda Bryant-Friedrich is the dean of College of Graduate Studies at the University of Toledo in Ohio and Malika Jeffries-EL is an associate professor in the chemistry department at Boston University.

Two African American Women at State Universities Receive Notable Honors

Stephanie Adams, dean of engineering at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, received an award from the American Society of Engineering Education and Iris Rosa had the floor at the Indiana University dance studio named in her honor.

University of Georgia to Honor Mary Frances Early, Its First African American Graduate

Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes were the first African American students to enroll at the University of Georgia in 1961. But Mary Frances Early was the first African American to earn a degree from the University of Georgia. The university will unveil an official portrait in October.

College of the Holy Cross Scholar Wins Book Award From the World History Association

Lorelle Semley, an associate professor of history at th College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, will share the Bentley Book Prize from the World History Association. Dr. Semley’s book, described by a reviewer as a “staple of reading lists for years to come,” explores the meaning of citizenship for French colonial subjects of African descent.

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