College of Engineering at Cornell University Honors Its Former Dean, Lance R. Collins
Dr. Collins served as the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering at Cornell University from 2010 to 2020. On August 1, 2020, he became the inaugural vice president and executive director of Virginia Tech’s new Innovation Campus in Alexandria, Virginia.
Tamara Bertrand Jones Honored by the Association for the Study of Higher Education
Tamara Bertrand Jones is an associate professor of higher education in the College of Education at Florida State University. Her research examines the sociocultural influences on socialization during graduate education and the professional experiences of underrepresented populations, particularly Black women, in academia.
Harvard Business School Renames Building to Honor Its First Black Tenured Faculty Member
James I. Cash was the first African American to earn a basketball scholarship at Texas Christian University. After earning a master's degree and a Ph.D. in computer science at Purdue University, Dr. Cash joined the faculty at Harvard Business School in 1976. He became the first Black tenured faculty member in 1985.
Baylor University Honors Its First Black Graduate Student in Religion
The department of religion in the College of Arts & Sciences at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has named a graduate student scholarship program in honor of Robert L. Gilbert, the first Black student to receive an undergraduate degree at Baylor University and the first Black graduate student in religion.
Howard University’s Kehbuma Langmia Honored by the National Communication Association
Kehbuma Langmia, professor and chair of the department of strategic, legal and management communications is the 2020 recipient of the Orlando L. Taylor Distinguished Scholarship Award in Africana Communication, presented by the National Communication Association.
Cato Laurencin Honored for Promotion of Social Justice in Medical Education
Cato T. Laurencin is the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, professor of chemical engineering, materials sciences, and biomedical engineering, and one of only two University Professors at the University of Connecticut.
Simmons University Scholar Named Distinguished Educator of the Year in Social Work
Johnnie Hamilton-Mason was honored by the National Association of Black Social Workers. She is a professor and holds the Eva Whiting White Endowed Chair at Simmons University’s School of Social Work in Boston.
San Diego Mesa College Honors Its Former President Constance Carroll
Dr. Carroll was appointed chancellor of the San Diego Community College District in 2004. Earlier, she served as president of San Diego Mesa College for 11 years. The Humanities Institute on the campus of San Diego Mesa College will be named in her honor.
City of Tallahassee Honors Former Florida A&M University Professor Charles Evans
The city of Tallahassee, Florida, has renamed a pond in the Myers Park neighborhood to honor Charles E. Evans, a former professor at Florida A&M University. The pond used to be named for a segregationist justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
Two Prestigious Universities Bestow Honors on African American Scholars
Stanford University has named a theater on campus in honor of Harry Elam Jr., who taught at Stanford for 30 years before becoming president of Occidental College in Los Angeles. Rice University in Houston has named a grove after Rev. William A. Lawson a civil rights leader and former professor at Texas Southern University.
Three African Americans in Higher Education Honored With Prestigious Awards
The honorees are Francis A. Pearman, an assistant professor of education at Stanford University, Janice R. Franklin, dean of library and learning resources at Alabama State University, and David Stovall, professor of Black studies and criminology, law, and justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
George Washington University Professor Wins American Marketing Association Award
Vanessa Perry is the associate dean for faculty and research and professor of marketing at the George Washington University School of Business. She has been actively involved with The PhD Project, an organization that works to increase the diversity of business school faculty through mentorship.
Leo Rouse Receives the Distinguished Service Award From the American Dental Association
Leo E. Rouse, retired dean of the College of Dentistry at Howard University, was the first African American to serve as president of the American Dental Education Association. Earlier, he was the commander of the U.S. Army Dental Command.
A Trio of African American Scholars Receive Notable Honors or Awards
The honorees are Milton Morris, the director of Environmental Health Science at Benedict College in South Carolina, Stephanie Luster-Teasley, a professor of engineering at North Carolina A&T State University, and Alexander Byrd, associate dean of humanities and associate professor of history at Rice University in Houston.
Melissa Holloway Honored by the National Association of College and University Attorneys
Since May 2019, Mellissa Holloway has been general counsel for legal affairs at North Carolina A&T State University in East Greensboro. Earlier, she was deputy general counsel at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and general counsel at North Carolina Central University in Durham.
Harvard’s Danielle Allen Awarded the $500,000 Kluge Prize From the Library of Congress
Danielle S. Allen, a University professor and professor of government who also serves as director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, has been awarded the John W. Kluge Prize from the Library of Congress. The prize recognizes scholarly achievement in disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prizes.
University of Virginia Honors Its First African American Doctoral Graduate
In 1953, Walter N. Ridley earned a doctorate from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. Dr. Ridley holds the distinction of being the first African American to earn a doctoral degree from a historically white university in the South.
Beryl McEwen Honored by the Association for Business Teaching and Research
Dr. McEwen was named interim provost at North Carolina A&T State Univerity in 2017 and provost in 2018. Earlier, she had been serving as dean of the College of Business at the university and vice provost for strategic planning and institutional effectiveness. Dr. McEwen joined the faculty at the university in 1995.
Michelle Samuel-Foo Is the First African American to Win a Major Entomological Award
Michelle Samuel-Foo, an assistant professor at Alabama State University, has been selected to receive the Founders Memorial Recognition, one of the highest nationwide honors given by the Entomological Society of America.
Rion Amilcar Scott Wins the Towson University Prize for Literature
The Towson University Prize for Literature is awarded annually for a single book or book-length manuscript of fiction, poetry, drama, or imaginative nonfiction. Scott teaches creative writing at the University of Maryland, College Park.
University of Wisconsin Historian Wins Book Prize
Jacqueline-Bethel Mougoué, an assistant professor of African cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been awarded the 2020 Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize from the Western Association of Women Historians.
Saint Louis University Honors a Pioneeering Black Faculty Member
Saint Louis University has announced annual scholarships in honor of longtime St. Louis community leader, civil rights pioneer, and publisher Donald M. Suggs. Dr. Suggs was the first African-American to be appointed an associate clinical professor of oral surgery at the Saint Louis University Dental School.
Two African American Historians to Receive Lillian Smith Book Awards
Jelani M. Favors, an associate professor of history at Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, and Brandon K. Winford, an associate professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, were honored for the books on social justice topics.
Vanderbilt University Scholar Named a Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar
Steven D. Townsend is an assistant professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He is the only African American among the 14 Dreyfus Foundation Teacher Scholars for 2020. Each scholar receives a $100,000 unrestricted research grant.
Emory University’s Jericho Brown Wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
In selecting Professor Brown's collection of poetry for this honor, the Pulitzer board called it “a collection of masterful lyrics that combine delicacy with historical urgency in their loving evocation of bodies vulnerable to hostility and violence.”
Melvin Terrell Honored by NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education
Melvin C. Terrell, vice president emeritus at Northeastern Illinois University, was selected as the recipient of the 2020 Bobby E. Leach Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Award presented by NASPA. The award is named in honor of the first person of color to serve as NASPA president.
University of Massachusetts Names Its Fine Arts Center After a Former Chancellor
Dr. Randolph Bromery first came to the University of Massachusetts as a professor of geology in 1967. At the time he was one of only seven Black faculty members out of a total faculty of about 1,000. There were only 36 African American students on campus out of a total student body of 14,000.
Geneive Henry of Susquehanna University Honored by the Council on Undergraduate Research
Geneive Henry is the Charles B. Degenstein Professor of Chemistry at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. She has been awarded the Outstanding Mentorship Award from the Chemistry Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research.
Cynthia Dillard Wins Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Foundations of Education
Each year, the award is presented by the American Educational Studies Association to an individual "who has published significantly influential works, excels in mentorship, provides leadership and growth to the academic field and has a reputation in educational foundations."
Danielle Conway Honored by the George Washington University Law School
Danielle M. Conway, dean of the Dickinson Law School at Pennsylvania State University, was named the 2020 recipient of the Belva Ann Lockwood Award from George Washington University Law School. The award recognizes the accomplishments and pioneering spirit of women leaders in the legal profession.
Talladega College Recognizes Its President by Naming a New Building in His Honor
The board of trustees of historically Black Talladega College in Alabama voted to name the newly constructed 47,000-square-foot student center/arena in honor of the college’s 20th and current president, Billy C. Hawkins. Dr. Hawkins has led the college since 2008.
Ann Brothers Smith Honored by the American Association of University Administrators
Dr. Smith, a retired public school administrator, has served as a member of the West Virginia State University Board of Governors since 2011, serving as chair, vice chair, and chair of several board committees. She is the former associate superintendent for school leadership for the Detroit public school system.
Fatimah Jackson to Receive the Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award
Fatimah Jackson is a professor of biology and the director of the W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She is the first woman of African descent to receive this prestigious award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
Three Black Women Named Winners of National Book Critics Circle Awards
Each year, the National Book Critics Circle presents awards for the finest books published in English in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism. Three of the six winning authors this year are Black women. Each has some ties to higher education.
Cornell University’s Derrick Spires Wins the St. Louis Mercantile Library Prize
The award, given by the Bibliographical Society of America, honors research in the bibliography of American literature and history. Dr. Spires is an associate professor of English at Cornell University. He joined the faculty last fall after teaching at the University of Illinois.
A Trio of African American Men Receive Notable Honors and Awards
The honorees are J. Marshall Shepherd, the director of the atmospheric sciences program at the University of Georgia, H. Carl McCall, former chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees, and Linwood Whitten, director of diversity and international affairs at Alabama State University.
