Leonard Adams Is the New Leader of Historically Black Knoxville College

At its peak in the 1960s, Knoxville College enrollments reached 1,200 students. The college lost its accreditation in 1997. By 2015, there were only 11 students enrolled for the spring semester and it suspended all classes for the next academic year. In 2018, the college once again began to offer classes, but only online.

Felicia Blow of Hampton University to Lead the Public Relations Society of America

Felicia Blow, vice president for development at Hampton University in Virginia, has worked in fields including manufacturing, waste management, environmental services, telecommunications, and higher education. Before coming to Hampton University, she served as director of public affairs for Cox Communications.

Raheem Beyah Is the New Dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech

Dr. Beyah is the Motorola Foundation Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. He has been serving as vice president for interdisciplinary research and executive director of the online master's degree program in cybersecurity.

Better Late Than Never: American Psychiatric Association Apologizes for Its Racist Past

Prevailing Black stereotypes in psychiatry included fallacies that patients were hostile, unmotivated for treatment, had primitive character structure, and were child-like. The diagnosis of Drapetomania was centered around the idea that Black Americans who did not want to be slaves were mentally ill.

Judith Gay Will Be the First Leader of the New Erie County Community College...

Dr. Gay has been serving as vice president for strategic initiatives and chief of staff for the Community College of Philadelphia and was interim president during the 2013-14 academic year. Dr. Gay had planned to retire at the end of January.

Linda Green Will Be the Inaugural Dean of the College of Law at Michigan...

Professor Greene serves on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Law. She first joined the faculty there in 1989 and holds the Evjue-Bascom Professorship. From 1999 to 2004 she was the inaugural vice chancellor of equity, diversity, and inclusion at the University of California, San Diego.

Alfred Tatum Appointed Provost at Metropolitan State University of Denver

Dr. Tatum was dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 2013-20. He joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007 after teaching at Northern Illinois University, the University of Maryland, and Buffalo State College.

Larry Johnson Will Be the Next President of Guttman Community College in New York...

Since 2018, Dr. Johnson has been serving as the first African American president of Phoenix College, a public community college in Maricopa County, Arizona. He will become president of Guttman Community College in Manhattan on July 1.

Tiffany Hunter is the New Provost at Clark State Community College in Springfield, Ohio

Prior to coming to Clark State Community College in 2019, Dr. Hunter served at Florida State College-Jacksonville as the dean of education and human services and as a faculty member for more than seven years. Earlier, she worked for Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina.

Veteran Journalist Named to Lead the School of Communication at American University

Sam Fulwood III was appointed dean of the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C., effective May 15. He has been serving as a senior fellow and vice president of race and equity at the Center for American Progress.

Deborah Archer Elected President of the National Board of the American Civil Liberties Union

Deborah Archer is a tenured professor of clinical law and director of the Civil Rights Clinic at New York University School of Law, and co-faculty director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU Law. She will be the first African American woman to lead the ACLU.

Loren Blanchard Appointed the Seventh President of the University of Houston-Downtown

Dr. Blanchard has been serving as executive vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for the California State University System. Earlier, he was provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Xavier University in New Orleans.

Three African American Men Who Have Been Appointed Deans

Larry Webster Jr. was named the dean of the Division of Career and Technical Education at Coahoma Community College in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Jerell B. Hill is the new dean of the School of Education at Pacific Oaks College in California and Zackeus Johnson was named dean of University College at Southern University in Louisiana.

Vincent Rougeau Will Be the First African American President of the College of the...

Vincent Rougeau has been dean of the Boston College Law School since 2011. Prior to his role at Boston College, Rougeau was a tenured professor of law at Notre Dame Law School and served as their associate dean for academic affairs from 1999-2002.

Rutgers University Names Campus Directors for the Institute for the Study of Global Racial...

The directors, who will lead the institute’s work at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Rutgers University-Newark and Rutgers University-Camden, will use humanistic theories, methods and approaches to study global issues of race and social justice.

C. Andrew McGadney Named the 20th President of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois

Dr. McGadney currently serves as vice president and dean of student advancement at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Prior to coming to Colby, Dr. McGadney was vice president for university advancement at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, Appoints its First Black President

In 2016, Dr. Hemphill became the seventh president of Radford University in Virginia. Earlier, he served from 2012 to 2016 as the 10th president of West Virginia State University, a historically Black educational institution near Charleston.

Darrell Allison Appointed Chancellor of Fayetteville State University in North Carolina

Darrell Allison has been serving as vice president of governmental affairs and state teams at the American Federation for Children. He is a former member of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors and former trustee at North Carolina Central University.

Julia Chinyere Oparah Will Be the Next Provost at the University of San Francisco

Dr. Oparah has served on the faculty at Mills College in Oakland, California, for more than 20 years. In 2017, she was named provost and dean of the faculty at Mills College. She will assume her new duties at the University of San Francisco on July 12.

Towuanna Porter Brannon is the New President of Thomas Nelson Community College in Virginia

Since 2016, Dr. Brannon has served as vice president for student services at Mitchell Community College in Statesville, North Carolina. Earlier she held administrative positions at several colleges in the New York metropolitan area.

Christine Johnson McPhail Is the New President of Saint Augustine’s University in North Carolina

Dr. McPhail has been serving as a professor of practice at the John E. Roueche Center for Community College Leadership at Kansas State University. Earlier, she was director of the Community College Leadership Doctoral Program at Morgan State University in Baltimore and president of Cypress College in California.

Two Universities Appoint African American Scholars to Dean Positions

Darryl Scriven has been appointed dean of the  School of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, and Taléa Drummer-Ferrell is the new dean of students at Kent State University in Ohio.

Gbemi Disu Appointed Executive Director of Carnegie Mellon University Africa in Rwanda

Prior to joining CMU-Africa, Disu served as chief business officer at George Mason University Korea. Earlier, she held other leadership positions at George Mason University including special assistant to the president and executive director for Global Strategy.

Laurie A. Carter Will Be the First Black President of Lawrence University in Appleton,...

Since 2017, Carter has been president of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. She spent 25 years in leadership positions at The Juilliard School and later was executive vice president and university counsel at Eastern Kentucky University. She will begin her new duties on July 1.

Professor Cornel West to Rejoin the Faculty at Union Theological Seminary

Cornel West has been appointed to the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Last month, Professor West told Harvard he would leave the university if it did not reconsider its decision to not grant him tenure.

Gary Crosby Will Be the First Man and First African American to Lead Saint...

Since 2015, Dr. Crosby has been vice president for student affairs at Alabama A&M University. Prior to joining AAMU, he served in various capacities at Jackson State University in Mississippi. When he takes office on July 1, he will be the first man and first African American to lead the university in its 121-year history.

Cynthia Anthony Appointed President of Lawson State Community College in Alabama

Dr. Anthony has been serving as interim president at the college since September 2020. Prior to her appointment as interim president, Dr. Anthony was interim vice chancellor for student success for the Alabama Community College System.

John McKnight Selected as the Next Dean of Haverford College in Pennsylvania

Since 2016, Dr. McKnight has been the dean of institutional equity and inclusion at Connecticut College. Prior to joining the staff of Connecticut College, he worked at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, as dean of intercultural development. Earlier, he served as director of multicultural affairs and a coordinator of residence life at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Maryland Legislature Approves a $577 Million Settlement of a Long-Running HBCU Lawsuit

The current legislation, passed by overwhelming majorities in both houses of the legislature, calls for payment of $577 million over a 10-year period beginning in 2023. Funds will be used for scholarships, faculty recruitment and development, and to develop new academic programs.

The First Black President of Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts

Since 2019, Dr. Chrite has served as president of Bethune-Cookman University, a historically Black educational institution in Daytona Beach, Florida. Before taking on that position, he was dean of the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver. 

Four African Americans Scholars Appointed to University Dean Positions

The new deans are Trisha Clement-Montgomery at the University of Kentucky, Darryl Scriven at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, Denise Stephens at the University of Oklahoma, and Rhea Ballard-Thrower at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

David C. Wilson Named Leader of the School of Public Policy at the University...

Dr. Wilson currently serves as senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and is a professor of political science and psychological and brain sciences at the University of Delaware. He will become dean of the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley on July 1.

The First African American Dean of the Business School at the University of Portland...

Michael DeVaughn has served on the faculty at the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since 2008. Earlier, he taught at the University of Minnesota. His scholarship has centered on organizational learning and entrepreneurship, as well as the delivery of business education.

Patricia Ramsey Appointed President of Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York

Dr. Ramsey, whose appointment is effective May 1, will be the first woman to serve as the president of Medgar Evers College. A biologist by training, she comes to CUNY from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Earlier, she was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Richard Milner to Lead the American Educational Research Association

H. Richard Milner IV is the Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Education in the department of teaching and learning at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development. He will serve one year as president-elect and then become president of the AERA in 2022.

Bennie Harris Will Be the Next Chancellor of the University of South Carolina Upstate

Dr. Harris currently serves as senior vice president for institutional advancement at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, a position he has held since 2014. Prior to that, he was vice president for development and alumni relations at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee.

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