Tagged: University of Rochester

Robert Blaine III is slated to become the next president of the University of Bahamas on July 1. With a background in both the public sector and academia, he previously held leadership roles with two HBCUs in Mississippi.

The new endowed professors are Eddie Chambers at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Stefanie Dunning at the University of Rochester in New York, and Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire at Harvard University.

Throughout his career in education, Harris served in a wide variety of settings including K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities. He also spent several years as an administrator with the New York Department of Education.

The National Association of Social Workers honored Rolanda Ward for her service to underserved and oppressed communities. She currently serves as director of the Rose Bente Lee Ostapenko Center for Race, Equity, and Mission at Niagara University.

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.

Jordan Ealey is a new assistant professor of Black studies at the University of Rochester in New York. G. Preston Wilson Jr. was appointed director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers at Fisk University in Nashville and Linda Greene, who became the inaugural dean of the Michigan State University College of Law in 2020, is stepping down from her post to take a faculty position at the university.

Taking on new positions or duties are Carol Y. Bailey at Amherst College in Massachusetts, Ebonya L. Washington of Columbia University, Philip V. McHarris at the University of Rochester in New York, Fayron Epps at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, and Mya Roberson in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Those appointed to new administrative post are John Blackshear at the University of Rochester in New York, Chris Allen at the University of Southern California, Steven White at Wilberforce University in Ohio, Bettina Mozie at South Carolina State University, Michael Harper at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, and Thelma Ford Sojourner at Voorhees University in Denmark, South Carolina.

Dr. Watson has been serving as interim president since last April. Before being named interim president, Dr. Watson had been vice president for instruction at the community college since 2019. Before coming to Kellogg Community College, Dr. Watson served as director, assistant dean, and dean at the Pennsylvania College of Technology from 2011-2018.

The new Black studies department will work in close collaboration with the university’s Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies, which was established in 1986.

Wesley Harris a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was elected vice president of the National Academy of Engineering. Shawn Lee Williams at Alexandria Technical and Community College in Minnesota, Tiffany Steele at the University of Rochester, and Aaron Faculty at Arizonza State are taking on new faculty roles.

Taking on new positions in higher education relating to diversity are Russell T. Griffin at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, Adrienne Morgan at the University of Rochester in New York, Karin Lee at the University of Alabama, and Kathy Goodridge-Purnell at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee.

The five Black scholars in new faculty posts are Amanda McLeroy at the University of Rochester in New York, Jabari Asim at Emerson College in Boston, Tara T. Green at the University of Houston, Dawn Bragg at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and Erik Carpenter in the College of Visual Arts at California State University, Fullerton.

Dr. Watson has been vice president for instruction at the community college since 2019. From 2011 to 2019, Dr. Watson was an administrator at the  Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, including serving as assistant dean and dean of academic success.

The Frederick Douglass Medal is a joint initiative of the Office of the President and the Frederick Douglass Institute established in 2008 at the University of Rochester to honor individuals of outstanding achievement whose scholarship and community engagement honor the legacy of Frederick Douglass. Dr. Johnson teaches at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Kudzai Mbinda, a senior chemical engineering major at the University of Rochester in New York from Harare, Zimbabwe, was one of two Rhodes Scholars chosen from 10 finalists competing in the Zimbabwe competition. He plans to pursue a master’s degree in energy systems at Oxford.

A new digital history project at the University of Rochester in New York will create a website with meticulously detailed virtual tours of a 1632 English fort on the coast of Ghana that was among the earliest to send enslaved Africans to the American colonies.

Beginning in the 1930s and 40s, the federal government delineated areas where mortgages could be insured. These redlining policies, which remained in effect until the 1960s, led to decades of community disinvestment, concentrated poverty in inner-city neighborhoods, and denied residents the ability to build intergenerational wealth through homeownership. Health impacts remain to this day.

Here is a roundup of recent announcements regarding the appointments of African Americans to administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.