Darrell Hudson, an associate professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis, will become director of the university's Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity. Brenda Jacobs was appointed interim chair of the nursing department at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Julia Steed will become the academic director of the family nurse practitioner program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
The five scholars appointed to endowed chairs at North Carolina Central University are Gladys Mitchell-Walthour in political science, Jonathan Livingston in psychology, Zelda Lockhart in language and literature, Lydia Lindsey is history, and Charles Williams in art and design.
Johns Hopkins University reports that in 2021, there were 281 Black or African American faculty at the university. They made up 5.4 percent of the more than 5,200 faculty members. In 2017, Blacks were 4.3 percent of all faculty at Johns Hopkins.
Byron Lars has been named the next Jane B. Nord Professor of Fashion Design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and Michael Burton was named to a McDermott Professorship at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Sheria D. Rowe is the assistant dean and professor in the School of Business. Patrick Webb is an associate professor of criminal justice and Shirlkeymu L. Winston is an assistant professor of African American history.
Bryana French has been appointed associate chair in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Creston Herron was named director of orchestral activities at the University of Kansas and Jamie Waters is a new associate professor of Old Testament studies at Boston College.
Jeanette Davidson was appointed director of the Center for Societal Impact and a professor of instruction at the University of Texas at Austin. Tony Morris has been named the associate dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, and Nicholas Bratcher was appointed director of the School of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Louisiana Monroe.
Elisha Chambers was appointed director of the new master's degree program in occupational therapy at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Isrea Butler will be the next director of the School of Music at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
William T. Brooks has been named an assistant professor of music at Albany State University in Georgia. Ericmoore Jossou will be joining the engineering faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this summer and Joan Blakey is the new director of the University of Minnesota School of Social Work.
Stacey Abrams was named the inaugural Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair for Race and Black Politics at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Rhonda Y. Williams was named to the Coleman A. Young Endowed Chair in the department of African American studies at Wayne State University in Detroit.
A new study finds that special education is the No. 1 teacher shortage area in 48 states. At the same time, a growing number of students of color have been identified as having a disability.
The three Black women faculty members who are taking on new assignments are Crystal Feimster at Yale University, Kia Dolby at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, and Alison Brown at Talladega College in Alabama.
Vanderbilt University in Nashville held a ceremony honoring the 41 faculty members who have recently been appointed to endowed chairs. Several of these appointments went to Black scholars, including three who teach chemistry.
Taking on new roles are LaQuandra S. Nesbitt at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Jarvis Givens at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Nicole B. Burwell at North Carolina A&T State University, and Anthony Greene at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
Taking on new roles are Barnard A. Jones at St. John's University in Staten Island, New York, Artha Gillis, at the University of California, Los Angeles, Terry-Ann Jones at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and David Staten at South Carolina State University.
Dr. Kelvin Adams retired in December 2022 from his duties as superintendent of the St. Louis Public School District, a position he held since 2008. Prior to serving as superintendent, he was the associate dean of the College of Education at Southern University in New Orleans.
Bree Alexander was appointed clinical assistant professor and interim coordinator for the bachelor of social work degree program at the University of South Carolina. Cajetan Iheka is the new director of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University and Earl J. Edwards is a new assistant professor in the educational leadership and higher education development at Boston College.
The five Black scholars in new posts or who are taking on new duties are Derrick Harriell at the University of Mississippi, Crista Johnson-Agbakwu at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Duane Watson at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Phylicia Rashad at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Misty De Berry at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
Appointed to new positions or taking on new duties are Michelle Robinson at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Charles D. Brown II at Yale University, Patricia Smith at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University in New Jersey, and Angela Byars-Winston of the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin.
Taking on new duties are Soyica Colbert at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Arisa White at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, Samuel Johnson at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, and Sherard Robbins at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development in Nashville.