He is currently a professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies and the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought at Temple University in Philadelphia.
The Henry G. Lee Professor of English at Pomona College in California, will serve a six-year term promoting the Academy and acting as an ambassador for poetry to the world at large.
The honorees are Kevin Young of Emory University in Atlanta, Larry McCutcheon of Claflin University in South Carolina, and Murial Hawkins of Virginia State University.
Rodney Irvin was promoted at Virginia Tech, Cheryl Thomas was named a vice president at Lincoln University, and LaTonia Karr was appointed to board of trustees at Stanford University.
The University Professor in the Department of Performance Studies in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University was recognized with the award that honors trailblazers in the arts who have redefined their art and pushed the boundaries of excellence in their field. The prize comes with a $300,000 award.
For the past three years, G. Dale Wesson has held the Samuel P. Massie Chair of Excellence Professorship in Science and Nuclear Engineering at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg.
Filmmaker Julie Dash is spending the current semester in an endowed chair in media at Wayne State University. Kevin B. Johnson, who has served on the faculty at Vanderbilt University since 2002, has been named the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor.
Michael Bennett, associate professor of sociology at DePaul University, received the award in the alumni category. Kim Ransom, director of the university's Collegiate Scholars Program won the award in the staff category.
The three African-American women earning promotions are Carmen Wigfall at Winston-Salem State University, Betty Roberts at Alcorn State University, and Lisa McKay at the State University of New York.
The honorees are Richard Wamai of Northeastern University in Boston, Karen Jackson-Weaver of Princeton University, and Howard Fuller of Marquette University in Milwaukee.
Since 2011 he has served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the university. Previously he taught at East Carolina University and was on the faculty at Wayne State University in Detroit for nearly two decades.
Shirley Franklin, the former mayor of Atlanta, will be teaching at the University of Texas. Vivian Fluellen was named to department chair at Fort Valley State University and Desmond Patton is a new assistant professor of social work at the University of Michigan.
Pamela V. Hammond, the former dean of the School of Nursing Hampton University in Virginia, was elected chair of the nonprofit research association conducting advanced study in aerospace and atmospheric science.
The new appointees are Albert Tezeno at Southern University, Jennifer Taylor at the American Institute of Architecture Students, Deborah Hayes at the University of Delaware, Michelle Thompson-Taylor at the University of Rochester, Renee MIddleton at Ohio University, Amilcar Shabazz at the University of Massachusetts, and K. Matthew Dames at Syracuse University.
Royal P. Walker Jr., executive director of the Institute for Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi, is honored by the Association of University Centers on Disabilities.
After more than 20 years at the University of Kentucky, this fall Professor Finney will take the John H. Bennett Jr. Chair of Southern Literature and Creative Writing at the University of South Carolina.
The former deputy commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers is a new professor of practice in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
William Nelson Pruitt III was appointed assistant director of the Education Abroad program. He is the former assistant director of international affairs for Shanghai Finance University and currently is enrolled in the doctoral program in higher education administration at Virginia Tech.
James Manigault-Bryant was named an associate professor of Africana studies and Ngonidzashe Munemo was promoted to associate professor of political science.
Jericho Brown is a new assistant professor of creative writing at Emory University in Atlanta and Nadia Rabesahala Horning was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor of political science at Middlebury College in Vermont.
The new appointees are Jacquelyn White at Prairie View A&M, Juliana Mosley at Edward Waters College, and Emily Dickens at the University of North Carolina system.
The 13th president of Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Dr. Sias was honored for being a "forward-thinking leader" and for her advocacy of higher education as chair of the board of directors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
Olivia Stinson, a sophomore at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, was recognized as a 2012 L'Oreal Paris International Woman of Worth for establishing a nonprofit organization that distributes books and other supplies to children whose parents are incarcerated.
Calvin McFadden at Bristol Community College, Chinyere Ukabiala at Grinnell College, and Billy Lawton at Prairie View A&M University are assuming new responsibilities.
Since 2004, she has been senior associate dean of the College of Education at the university and has been on the University of Alabama faculty since 1995.
The senior associate provost at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, was named president of the Association of Chief Academic Officers of the Southern States.
Rosie Phillips Bingham, vice president of student affairs at the University of Memphis, was named Distinguished Elder by the National Multicultural Conference and Summit.
He has served in the post on an interim basis since April 2012. While a student at Jackson State in the 1970s, he was a member of the Sonic Boom of the South marching band.
An associate professor of English and Black studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara won the William Sanders Scarborough Prize for her book Darkening Mirrors: Imperial Representation in Depression-Era African American Performance.
Kinfe Ken Redda, professor of medicinal chemistry in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Florida A&M University, has received a U.S. patent for the development of therapeutic agents for the treatment of HIV.
Don'Neisha Clark, a senior at Auburn University in Alabama, has been selected to receive a Gilman Scholarship from the Institute for International Education. She will study architecture at Istanbul Technical University in Turkey.
Samaa Abdurraqib of Bowdoin College, Bobby Wilson of the University of Alabama, and the department of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have been selected for prestigious honors.
Katrice Albert at the University of Minnesota, Andrea Taylor at Tennessee State University, Jannifer Crittendon at Northwestern University, and Eddie George at Ohio State will be taking on new duties.