Appointments & Awards

Four New Black Assistant Professors at Cornell University

The new assistant professors are Valerie Aymar in landscape architecture, Stephanie J. Creary and Sean E. Rogers in the School of Hotel Administration, and Samantha N. Sheppard in cinema and media studies.

Four African Americans Taking on New Administrative Duties in Higher Education

The appointees are Evelyn P. Leathers at Bennett College in North Carolina, Clothilde Hewlett at the University of California, Berkeley, Kendall D. Isaac at Fort Valley State University in Georgia, and Mohamed Ali at Iowa State University.

T. Geronimo Johnson to Receive the 2015 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence

T. Geronimo Johnson, a visiting professor at the Iowa Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa, is being honored by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation for his 2015 novel Welcome to Braggsville.

Two Black Women Named Postdoctoral Fellows at the University of Maryland Baltimore County

Three women make up the third cohort of the Postdoctoral Fellows for Faculty Diversity at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Black women are two of this year's three fellows: Keisha McIntosh Allen in education and Nkiru Nnawulezi in psychology.

Two New Executives at the National Society of Black Engineers

Constance Thompson was named director of external and government affairs and Stanton Hill is the new director of finance and accounting at the National Society of Black Engineers.

Three Black Faculty Members Taking on New Assignments

The Black scholars in new roles are Tyson Ling-Meadows at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Kevin K. Gaines at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and Brandy N. Kelly Pryor at the University of Louisville.

Two African Americans Selected for Notable Honors

The honorees are William Jelani Cobb, an associate professor of history and director of the Africana Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut, and Christine Grant, a professor of chemical engineering at North Carolina State University.

Four African Americans in New Administrative Posts in Higher Education

Taking on new roles are Monica C. Scott at Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, R. Kenneth O'Neal II at Pueblo Community College in Colorado, Fatima M. Mncube-Barnes at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Jeremy Orr at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Neil Roberts Elected President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association

Neil Roberts is an associate professor of Africana studies and chair of the department of religion at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He will become president of the association in January 2017.

Cato Laurencin to Receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation

Cato T. Laurencin has been selected by President Obama as one of seven winners of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. He is the only African American among the seven winners of the award this year.

Two African American Women Scholars Honored With Prestigious Awards

The honorees are Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, a professor of dance at Florida State University in Tallahassee and Keisha Blain, an assistant professor of history at the University of Iowa.

New Administrative Posts in Higher Education for Three African Americans

The African Americans in new administrative posts in higher education are Eva K. Pickens at Texas Southern University, Adriel A. Hilton at Grambling State University in Louisiana, and Howard Blue at Yale University Health.

Morehouse College Student From Zimbabwe Wins Rhodes Scholarship

Prince Abudu, a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, was awarded one of the Rhodes Scholarships given to students from Zimbabwe. Abudu is the fourth student from Morehouse College to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship.

Monica Monroe Named Dean of Students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School

Monroe has been serving as a lecturer in law and as associate dean of students at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. She has taught at the law school since 2004.

Three African American Faculty Members Taking on Added Responsibilities

Taking on new duties are Jacquelyn Taylor at the Yale University School of Nursing, Barbara Krauthamer at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and S. David Mitchell at the University of Missouri.

Two Black Men Named to Ivy League University Faculties

Khalil Gibran Muhammad was appointed professor of history, race, and public policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University and Desmond Jagmohan was named an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.

Two African Americans Honored With Major Awards

A. Van Jordan, Presidential Professor at Rutgers University-Newark, is the winner of the 2015 Lannan Literary Award for Poetry and Walter Bumphus, president of the American Association of Community Colleges will be awarded the inaugural Marie Fielder Medal.

New Administrative Appointments in Higher Education for Two African Americans

Odetta Johnson was named director of public safety and chief of police at North Carolina Central University and Martin Mbugua was appointed assistant vice president of communications at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Historian Wins Two Book Awards for Her Work on Black Women in Pornography

Mireille Miller-Young, an associate professor of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has won awards from the American Studies Association and the National Women's Studies Association for her book A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography.

Two African American Scholars Honored With Major Awards

The honorees are Katherine Grace Hendrix, a professor in the department of communication at the University of Memphis and Anthony Reed, an associate professor of English and African American studies at Yale University.

New Administrative Jobs for Four Black Americans in Higher Education

The new appointees are Simeon Ananou at the University at Albany, Tyrone A. Parham at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Nicole Whitehead at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, and Jason D. Hamilton at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.

Black Canadian Woman From the University of Pennsylvania Wins a Rhodes Scholarship

Adebisi (Debi) Ogunrinde, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, was awarded one of the 11 Rhodes Scholarships from Canada. She will pursue a master's degree in social anthropology and a master's degree in public policy at the University of Oxford.

Two Black Men Appointed to New Administrative Posts in Higher Education

Andrew Agwunobi was appointed executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Connecticut and Marvin E. Green Jr. was promoted to associate athletics director for sports administration at Florida A&M University.

Helon Habilia Named Judge of a Prestigious Book Prize Competition

Helon Habila, an associate professor of creative writing in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, has been selected as the judge for the 2016 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction.

Two African American Men Named to New Faculty Positions

David Murungi is a new assistant professor of information and process management at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and Thomas A. LaVeist was named professor and chair of the department of health, policy, and management at George Washington University.

Notable Honors for Two African American Scholars

The honorees are Don C. Locke, distinguished professor emeritus of counselor education at North Carolina State University and William B. DeLauder, president emeritus of historically Black Delaware State University.

Seven African Americans in New Higher Education Administrative Posts

Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Bernadette Gray-Little Named Board Chair at the Association of Public Land-grant Universities

The Association of Public Land-grant Universities is a research, policy, and advocacy organization representing 238 public research universities and land-grant institutions. Dr. Gray-Little has been chancellor of the University of Kansas since 2009.

Three Black Faculty Members Take on New Roles

Gwendolyn Williams is joining the faculty at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina. Nzingha Dalila was appointed to the faculty at the Clermont campus of the University of Cincinnati and Jim C. Harper II of North Carolina Central University was elected vice president of programs for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Six African Americans Appointed to Key Posts in Higher Education Administration

Taking on new roles are Katherine Bassard at Virginia Commonwealth University, Vita C. Pickrum at Delaware State University, Adam A. Smith at the University of Alabama, Pamela A. Anthony at Southern Methodist University, Constance Mallette at Winston-Salem State University, and Ivan L. Harrell II at Georgia Piedmont Technical College.

Two Black Scholars Win National Book Awards

Ta-Nehisi Coates won the National Book Award in the nonfiction category. He has taught at MIT and the City University of New York. Robin Coste Lewis, a Provost’s Fellow in the creative writing and literature doctoral program at the University of Southern California, won the National Book Award in the poetry category.

Virginia State University Has Three New African American Administrators

Garvin Maffett was named vice president for institutional advancement. Anthony Thompson is the new associate vice president for institutional advancement and Ronald O. White was named director of government relations.

New York University Historian to Be Awarded the Frederick Douglass Book Prize

Ada Ferrer, professor of history and professor of Latin American and Caribbean studies, will be awarded the $25,000 prize for the best book of the year on slavery or abolition that was written in the English language.

Emily Raboteau Wins the International Flash Fiction Competition

Emily Raboteau, a professor of English and creative writing at the City College of New York, won the $20,000 first prize for her 100-word short story entitled "Oysters." It was selected from more than 35,000 entries worldwide.

New Administrative Posts for Six African Americans in Higher Education

The appointees are Rocky Booker at the University of Arkansas, Cicely Peterson-Mangum of Drexel University, LaTonda Davis-Williams of the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, Tracey N. Foster of Johnson C. Smith University, Deborah Noble-Triplett of Virginia Commonwealth University, and Walter Clair of Vanderbilt University.

Four African American Scholars Selected for Prestigious Honors

The honorees are Richard S. Baker of Wayne State University, E. Albert Reece of the University of Maryland, Twyla J. Cummings of the Rochester Institute of Technology, and Jackson T. Wright Jr. of Case Western Reserve University.

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