Professional Schools

Jerry Dickinson to Lead the University of Pittsburgh School of Law

Dickinson first joined the Pitt Law faculty in 2017 and has served as vice dean for the past two years. His academic expertise centers around constitutional law.

Black Matriculants Are Down at U.S. Medical Schools

In 2024, the share of Black applicants to U.S. medical schools increased by 2.8 percent from 2023. However, the share of Black medical school matriculants decreased by 11.6 percent. Notably, there has been year-over-year progress in overall Black medical school representation, which has risen to from 7.9 percent in 2017 to 10.3 percent in 2024.

Black Medical School Students Continue to Have to Cope With Racial Discrimination

A new study by scholars at the medical schools of New York University and Yale University finds that African American or Black students were less likely than their White counterparts to feel that medical school training contributed to their development as a person and physician.

First-Year Law School Enrollments: Black Women Up, Black Men Down

In the fall of 2024, Black students made up 7.7 percent of all first-year students at law schools in the United States. Among the 2024 cohort of 3,060 entering Black students, 2,099 were women. Thus, women made up nearly 69 percent of all Black first-year law students.

Black First-Year Student Enrollment Plummets at Harvard Law

This academic year, only 19 Black students enrolled in Harvard Law's first-year class. This is the lowest number of Black first-year law students at Harvard since 1965.

Cecil Howard Takes on New Role at the Florida A&M University College of Law

Cecil Howard is the new associate provost for academic programs at the Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando. He will play a key role in the strategic planning, management, and oversight of diverse academic initiatives for the college.

Todd Clark Appointed Dean of Delaware Law School at Widener University

Clark is currently serving as senior associate dean of academic affairs and a tenured law professor at St. Thomas University College of Law in Miami Gardens, Florida. He will become dean of the Delaware Law School on July 1.

New Center at the University of Pennsylvania to Address Racial Gap in Maternal Health

Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women in the United States, which has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country and the problem is getting worse.

African Americans Are Making Progress in Medical School Enrollments

In 2022, there were 9,630 African Americans enrolled at U.S. medical schools. They made up 10 percent of total enrollments. In 2015, Blacks were 7.2 percent of total enrollments. Since 2015, the number of Blacks enrolled in U.S. medical schools is up by nearly 54 percent.

L. Ebony Boulware to Lead the Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Dr. Boulware hs been serving as the director of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute, in Durham, North Carolina, as vice dean for translational science and associate vice chancellor for translational research at Duke University. She was also a distinguished professor of medicine and served as chief of the division of general internal medicine in the department of medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine.

Yale Law School’s New Initiative to Boost Diversity in the Legal Profession

Yale Law School has announced the establishment of its Launchpad Scholars Program. The new program aims to help members of underrepresented or underserved communities navigate the law school application and admission process from start to finish.

Why HBCU Medical Schools May Be Better for Aspiring Black Physicians

A new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School, the University of Central Arkansas, and Northwestern University, finds that Black medical students attending historically Black medical schools report a greater sense of belonging and greater confidence in their scholastic abilities than those in predominantly White medical schools.

Twinette Johnson Selected to Lead the University of the District of Columbia Law School

Dr. Johnson is currently the associate dean for academic affairs at the law school. Prior to joining the faculty in 2017, Professor Johnson was an associate professor of law and director of the Academic Success Program at Southern Illinois University School of Law.

New Scholarship Honors the First Black Woman Graduate of Yale Divinity School

A new scholarship at Yale Divinity School honors Rena Karefa-Smart, the first Black woman to graduate from the school. Dr. Karefa-Smart was also the first Black woman to earn a theology doctorate from Harvard Divinity School and the first female professor to earn tenure at the Howard University School of Divinity.

University of Arkansas Honors the First Black Graduate of Its School of Architecture and Design

The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas recently honored the school's first African American graduate, Wallace "Wali" Caradine Jr. The university has named the east entrance of Vol Walker Hall the Wallace Reed Caradine Memorial Entry.

Major Increase in Black First-Year Enrollments in U.S. Medical Schools

The number of Black or African American first-year students at U.S. medical schools n 2021 increased by 21.0 percent, to 2,562. Black or African American students made up 11.3 percent of first-year students in 2021, up from 9.5 percent in 2020.

Berkeley Law to Require All Students to Take a Course on Race

Starting with the entering class in August 2023, students at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law will be required to take at least one course on race and the law in order to graduate.

The Inaugural Dean of Texas A&M University’s Intercollegiate School of Engineering Medicine

Roderic I. Pettigrew is the Robert A. Welch Professor in the Texas A&M University College of Medicine and professor of biomedical engineering in the College of Engineering. He will lead the new school that will allow graduates to receive both a doctorate of medicine and master’s degree in engineering in four years.

Penn State Dickinson Law School Is Establishing an Antiracist Development Institute

The Pennsylvania State University Dickinson Law School in Carlisle is creating an Antiracist Development Institute, a program offering organizations across the country systems design-based approaches to implementing antiracist practices, processes, and policies.

Students at 35 HBCUs Can Receive Full-Tuition Scholarships at Suffolk University Law School

The scholarship is named for Thaddeus Alexander Kitchener, who was the first student of color to graduate from Suffolk Law. Originally from Jamaica, Kitchener graduated in 1913. Before being accepted at Suffolk Law, Kitchener was working as a janitor at what is now Simmons University in Boston. After law school, Kitchener continued to work as a janitor until at least 1918.

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