Ronald Mason has served as president of three HBCUs: Jackson State University, Southern University and A&M College, and the University of the District of Columbia, where he was the longest tenured president in the university's history.
Dr. Drake brings over 40 years of experience to his new role, having held leadership positions in both higher education and private sectors. He recently served as interim president of historically Black Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Dr. Orlando Taylor of Fielding University passed away on January 16. He held numerous administrative leadership roles in higher education throughout his life. He dedicated his research to speech and language disorders, as well as advancing leadership at HBCUs, earning him seven doctoral degrees over the course of his career.
Dr. Williams is the former dean of the School of Education at Mills College in Oakland, California. Earlier, she was the associate dean of academic affairs at the Bank Street College, Graduate School of Education in New York City. Prior to these roles, she provided academic leadership as program coordinator and department chair for counseling and school psychology at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York.
Before being named interim president at Fresno City College, Dr. Hall spent seven and a half years as superintendent/president at Lassen Community College, in Susanville, California. He retired from that post in December 2019.
Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California, has announced the establishment of the Marie Fielder Center for Democracy, Leadership, and Education, a multidisciplinary research and advocacy center aimed at advancing diversity and inclusion throughout society.
A. Van Jordan, Presidential Professor at Rutgers University-Newark, is the winner of the 2015 Lannan Literary Award for Poetry and Walter Bumphus, president of the American Association of Community Colleges will be awarded the inaugural Marie Fielder Medal.
Orlando L. Taylor is vice president for strategic initiatives and research/director of the Institute for Social Innovation at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. He was the first African American president of the National Communication Association.
Gerald Porter has been named provost and senior vice president of Fielding Graduate University, in Santa Barbara, California. He was a professor and vice president of academic affairs at the Forest Institute in Springfield, Missouri.
Dr. Taylor has been serving as the founding president of the Washington, D.C., campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Earlier in his career, he spent more than 30 years as a faculty member and administrator at Howard University.
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