Honors & Awards

Regina Benjamin to Receive the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism

Dr. Benjamin is the former Surgeon General of the United States and now holds the NOLA.com/Times Picayune Endowed Chair in Public Health Sciences at Xavier University in New Orleans.

Duke University Scholar Wins Anthropology Award

Lee D. Baker, professor of cultural anthropology at Duke, has been selected to receive the Prize for Distinguished Achievement in the Critical Study of North America by the Society for the Anthropology on North America.

Honors for Two Black Educators in Mississippi

Mary L. Vaughn of Mississippi State is being honored by the National College Testing Association and Paul Tchounwou of Jackson State will be presented with an award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Jazz Educator Honored at the Kennedy Center

Nathan Davis, professor emeritus of music at the University of Pittsburgh, received the BNY Mellon Jazz 2013 Living Legacy Award honoring jazz masters who have achieved distinction in jazz performance and education.

Nontombi Naomi Tutu Wins Social Justice Award

Nontombi Naomi Tutu, a student at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School and daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, received the Otis Social Justice Award from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.

Towson University Scholar Honored by the National Institutes of Health

Sharon Jones-Eversley, an assistant professor of family studies, has been honored with the distinguished PRIDE Award. PRIDE is an acronym for the Program to Increase Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research.

Patricia Hill Collins to Be Awarded the Gittler Prize

Patricia Hill Collins, a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland at College Park, has been selected to receive the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize from Brandeis University for outstanding scholarly contributions in the field of racial, ethnic, and religious relations.

University of Kansas Historian Wins Prestigious Book Prize

Randal Jelks, associate professor of American studies and African American studies at the University of Kansas, has been awarded the 2013 Lillian Smith Book Award for his biography of long-time Morehouse College president Benjamin Elijah Mays.

An Endowed Scholarship Fund Honors Three Pioneering Emory Professors

The Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta has established an endowed scholarship program to provide financial aid for students in its Black Church Studies Program.

Two Black Scientists Named Fellows of the American Chemical Society

The American Chemical Society recently named its new class of fellows for 2013. Of the 96 new fellows, it appears that only two are African Americans. They will be inducted as fellows at the ACS annual meeting in Indianapolis on September 9.

South African Scholar Is the First International Winner of the Spendlove Prize

Jonathan D. Jansen, vice chancellor of the University of the Free State, was named the recipient of the 2013 Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance, awarded by the University of California at Merced.

Emory University Professor Wins Book Award

Kevin Young, the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing at Emory University in Atlanta, has won the 2013 PEN Open Book Award from the PEN American Center. The Harvard University graduate is the author of seven collections of poetry.

University of Tennessee Professor Named the Physician of the Year

Samuel Dagogo-Jack, professor of medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, has been chosen as the Physician of the Year in internal medicine by the National Medical Association.

Texas Tech Scholar Named Teacher of the Year in Spanish and Portuguese

Comfort Pratt, professor of bilingual education and diversity studies at Texas Tech University, was named the Outstanding Teacher of the Year at the college and university level by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.

Two African American Women Win Academic Awards

Crystal Sanders, an assistant professor of history at Penn State, won two awards for her doctoral dissertation on Black women in Mississippi and Sylvaia Schell of the University of Georgia was honored for her work to promote diversity in international education.

Leroy Keith Jr. Given the Title of President Emeritus of Morehouse College

Leroy Keith Jr served as the eighth president of Morehouse College in Atlanta from 1987 to 1994. Now, nearly two decades after his retirement, the college's board of trustees is bestowing on him the title of president emeritus.

University of Maryland Award Will Honor Sports Journalists Who Work for Racial Equality

The award is named for Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith, two African American journalists who documented Jackie Robinson's effort to racially integrate Major League Baseball.

Master’s Degree Student Wins Award for Best First Fiction

R. Kayeen Thomas, a student in the master of divinity program at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., was the recipient of the Phillis Wheatley Book Award for First Fiction at the 15th annual Harlem Book Fair in New York City.

Two Educators to Be Inducted Into the Iowa African American Hall of Fame

The IAAHF was founded in 1995 in Des Moines but is now located in the Black Cultural Center at Iowa State University. Since its inception, 56 members have been inducted into the IAAHF. This year two of the three new members have ties to higher education.

Two African American Scholars Honored for Service

Cheryl Swanier of Fort Valley State University was honored by the National Center for Women and Information Technology and M. Christopher Brown II, president of Alcorn State University will be honored in November by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.

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