Katherine Clay Bassard Will Be the Next Provost at Rhodes College in Memphis

Dr. Bassard currently serves as a professor of English and interim senior associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. Earlier, she was senior vice provost for faculty affairs at VCU.

Nina Gilbert to Direct the Center for Excellence in Education at Morehouse College in...

Dr. Gilbert is the former senior advisor on education reform for the Morehouse Research Institute. She has also served as an adjunct professor at Morehouse College and at the Tift College of Education at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.

Roland Mitchell Named Dean of the College of Human Sciences and Education at LSU

Dr. Mitchell is the E.B “Ted” Robert Endowed Professor and has been serving as interim dean. Professor Mitchell joined the faculty at the university in 2005 and was named a full professor in 2018.

University of North Carolina Gives Silent Sam to the Sons of Confederate Veterans

The statue of a Confederate soldier, that had stood at the gates of the university for more than a century, was torn down by protestors in August 2018. Now the university is donating the statue and $2.5 million to care and preserve the monument to the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The New Provost at Holy Names University in Oakland, California

Dr. Sheila Smith McKoy has been serving as chair of the department of English at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. She earned a master's degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. at Duke University in Durham North Carolina.

Michael Drake to Step Down as President of Ohio State University in 2020

Michael V. Drake, who has served as president of Ohio State University since June 2014, has announced that he will retire from that position next year. Dr. Drake is the fifteenth president of Ohio State and the first African American to serve in the post.

Adrien L. Bennings Will Be the Sixth President of Kellogg Community College in Michigan

Dr. Bennings has been serving as vice president for finance and administration at Clovis Community College in Clovis, New Mexico. From 2015 to 2018, she served as the director of the Small Business Development Center at Texas Tech University.

Harvard University Launches a New Intitiative to Examine its Historical Ties to Slavery

Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, and a professor of history, will chair the new initiative which will be called Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery.

Rita Dove Wins the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award From the Academy of American Poets

Rita Dove, Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia, served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1993 to 1995 and won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987. She is the only poet to receive the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts.

Georj Lewis Appointed President of Atlanta Metropolitan State College in Georgia

Prior to being named interim president of Atlanta Metropolitan State College this past July, Dr. Lewis was vice president of student affairs at Georgia Southern University. Earlier, he was vice chancellor for student affairs at Indiana University Northwest.

Carla Jackson Bell to Serve as Provost at Tuskegee University in Alabama

Dr. Bell is dean of the Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Sciences at the university. She will serve as provost beginning in January while the university conducts a national search to fill the position.

The First African American Woman Dean at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio

Alyncia Bowen was appointed dean of doctoral studies and the School of Nursing at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Bowen joined Franklin University 14 years ago. She has served as department chair, director of doctoral studies and director of the Global Center for Healthcare Education.

The New Dean of the College of Business at Dillard University in New Orleans

Kristen Broady is a former lecturer in economics at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Earlier in her career, Dr. Broady was dean of the division of business and computer science at Atlanta Metropolitan State College. She also has served on the faculty at Fort Valley State University and Benedict College.

Grant Hayes Serving as Provost at East Carolina University

Grant Hayes has been serving as dean of the College of Education at the university since 2015. Recently, Provost Ron Mitchelson was named interim chancellor and Dr. Hayes has stepped in to serve in Dr. Mitchelson's role until a new chancellor is named.

Theodorea Regina Berry Named to Dean Position at the University of Central Florida

Currently, Dr. Berry is a professor and chair of the department of African American studies at San Jose State University in California. Prior to joining San Jose State University, Berry served in various leadership roles at the University of Texas in San Antonio.

The Higher Education of the Next Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Kentucky

On Tuesday, November 5, voters in Kentucky elected the first Republican in 70 years to serve as attorney general. Daniel Cameron, who hold two degrees from the University of Louisville, is the first African American in history to be elected individually to statewide office in Kentucky.

Change in Leadership at Southern University-New Orleans

Lisa Mims-Devezin has announced that she is stepping down as chancellor of historically Black Southern University in New Orleans. James Ammons, executive vice president of the Southern University System and executive vice chancellor of Southern University in Baton Rouge, will replace her.

Census Bureau Report Shows That the Racial Gap in Median Income Is Widening

In 2018, the median Black family income was 58.6 percent of the median income for White families. Two years earlier, the Black median income was 60.7 percent of the median income of non-Hispanic White households.

University of Washington Scholar to Edit New Book Series on Race, Ethnicity and Politics

Megan Ming Francis, associate professor of political science at the University of Washington, has been selected as the editor of a new series of books from Cambridge University Press called Cambridge Elements in Race, Ethnicity and Politics.

Cheryl Evans Jones Named the 17th President of Paine College in Augusta, Georgia

Dr. Jones first joined the Paine College faculty in 1993 as an assistant professor of psychology. In 2014, she served as Paine’s acting provost and vice president for academic affairs. Dr. Jones has been serving as acting president of Paine College since July.

Robert Winn Named Director of the Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University

Dr. Winn has been serving as the director of the University of Illinois Cancer Center in Chicago and as associate vice chancellor of health affairs for community-based practice at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Science System.

The Next Dean of the College of Business at Bowie State University in Maryland

Dr. McNeil has been serving as an associate professor of economics at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. There, he led the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program he co-founded in the College of Business.

Princeton Theological Seminary Approves Measures to Address Its Ties to Slavery

Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey benefited from the slave economy, both through investments in Southern banks in the mid-19th century and from donors who profited from slavery. It is now taking several steps to repent for its past history.

Four African American Academics In This Year’s Class of MacArthur Fellows

The Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation has announced the selection of 26 individuals in this year’s class of MacArthur Fellows. This year, five of the 26 MacArthur Fellows are Black. Four have current ties to academia.

David A. Brennen Appointed President-Elect of the Southeast Association of Law Schools

David A. Brennen is dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law. Professor Brennen joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky in 2009 from the University of Georgia School of Law where he was a professor since 2006.

Reginald Leseane Serving as Provost at Savannah State University in Georgia

Dr. Leseane joined Savannah State University’s College of Business Administration 21 years ago and recently served as interim dean and associate dean.

Dwight A. McBride Named President of The New School in New York City

Since 2017, Dr. McBride has served as provost and executive vice president of academic affairs at Emory University in Atlanta. Before going to Emory, Dr. McBride was the Daniel Hale Williams Professor of African American studies, English, and Performance Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

The New Provost at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts

Winston Oluwole Soboyejo has been serving as interim provost since September 2018 and as the Bernard M. Gordon Dean of Engineering at the university. He joined the faculty in 2016. Earlier, he was a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University in New Jersey.

A Trio of African Americans Who Have Been Appointed to Dean Positions

At Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, Dawn Brown McNair was appointed dean of mathematics and sciences and Hilton Kelly was appointed dean of liberal arts and humanities. Doze Y. Butler has been named dean the School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Hamilton College’s Shelley Haley Elected to Lead the Society for Classical Studies

Dr. Haley is the Edward North Chair of Classics and professor of Classics and Africana Studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. She will serve for a year as president-elect of the society during 2020 and become president in January 2021.

Gary LeRoy Is the New President of the American Academy of Family Physicians

Dr. LeRoy earned both his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Wright State University. He completed his family medicine residency at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton and a primary care faculty development fellowship at Michigan State University.

The New Dean of the School of Public Health at Jackson State University

Girmay Berhie is a native of Ethiopia. Before becoming dean of the only accredited School of Public Health in Mississippi, Dr. Berhie was a tenured professor and the former chair of the department of health informatics at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

Maria Arvelo Lumpkin Appointed Chief Operating Officer at Saint Augustine’s University

Dr. Lumpkin brings over 20 years of higher education experience to Saint Augustine's University. Most recently, she served as the special assistant to the president, and as the inaugural executive director of student retention and the center for scholar communities at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

Regina Stanback Stroud Appointed Chancellor of the Peralta Community College District

Dr. Stanback Stroud has more than 35 years of experience as an educator and leader. She served most recently as president of Skyline College in San Bruno, California. She served in that role from 2010 to 2019.

Two African American Women Appointed to Dean Posts at Colleges in Massachusetts

Leykia Nulan has been named dean of admission at Mount Holyoke College, the liberal arts educational institution in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and Sheila Stamm was named as dean of the School of Education at American International College in Springfield.

Sean Seymore Appointed to an Endowed Chair at Vanderbilt University

Professor Seymore’s research focuses on how patent law should evolve in response to scientific advances and how the intersection of law and science should influence the formulation of public policy.

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