Tagged: University of Pittsburgh

“AI is a train that’s already in motion, and it’s picking up speed,” said Dr. Cortney VanHook, assistant professor of social work at the University of Illinois. “So, the question is: How can we use this amazing tool to improve mental health care for many populations?”

In the years immediately following the Civil War, many Black Americans gained access to education for the first time. Although many of these new opportunities were systemically dismantled by the end of Reconstruction, Black children who were exposed to these brief educational benefits had better economic opportunities in adulthood, and passed those benefits on to their children.

Alexia Hudson-Ward, associate director for research and learning at MIT Libraries, will serve as the president-elect of the Association of College and Research Libraries beginning on July 1. This will be followed by a one-year term as president beginning July 1, 2026.

Beginning in the role of president-elect designate, Dr. Means will serve as key leader of the National Rural Education Association for a five-year term. His career has been dedicated to advancing education for underrepresented students, particularly in STEM.

A well-known leader in the field of political science, Dr. Holden taught at several universities throughout the country, including over two decades on the faculty at the University of Virginia.

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.

With over two decades of experience in higher education administration, Nabors comes to the University of Pittsburgh from Endicott College in Massachusetts, where he served as dean of students for four years.

Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to dean positions at universities throughout the United States. If you have news for our appointments section, please email the information to [email protected].

The appointments are Jaquion Gholston at Howard University, Andrew Agwunobi at the University of Connecticut, and Dwayne Lee Pinkney at the University of Pittsburgh.

When asked to measure their employers' effectiveness in same-race versus cross-race diversity efforts, participants were more likely to negatively rate leaders who engaged in diversity initiatives geared towards members of their own race.

The three African Americans who have been appointed to diversity positions in higher education are Carl Lawson at the University of Pittsburgh, Sydney M. Savion at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and Sheryl R. Wilson at Bethel College in Newton, Kansas.

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.

Taking on new administrative roles are James Curbeam at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Vanessa Love at the University of Pittsburgh, Ian Bouie at Stockton University in New Jersey, Taylor Whitehead at Virginia State University, and Tourea B. Robinson at Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, Florida.

The University of Pittsburgh’s graduate program in Africana Studies has announced that it will enroll its first cohort of students in its Ph.D. program this coming fall. The new Ph.D. program will offer students the choice of three different concentrations: Race & Equity, Migration & Community Transformation, and Culture & Creative Production.

The four Black faculty members who have been appointed to new roles are Sylvester Johnson at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, LaQuandra Nesbitt in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at George Washington University, Lorgia García Peña at Princeton University in New Jersey, and Kyaien Conner at the University of Pittsburgh.

Of the 10.7 million Africans who survived the Middle Passage, 4.9 million were taken to Brazil, another 1 million arrived in Jamaica, and millions more were taken to various islands in the Caribbean. A new collaboration between Harvard University, the University of Pittsburgh and four universities in Latin America will study slavery throughout the Western Hemisphere.