Tag: Yale University

Three African Americans Who Have Been Named to Diversity Positions in Higher Education

Jonathan A. McElderry was appointed dean of student inclusive excellence at Elon University in North Carolina. Trachette Jackson is the assistant vice president for research for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at the University of Michigan and Risë Nelson was appointed director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Yale University Library.

Yale Divinity Schools Examines Its Ties to Slavery and Begins to Make Amends

Yale Divinity School recently acknowledged its historical complicity in slavery and racism. It is allocating $20 million to fund 10 social justice scholarships each year for incoming students who are dedicated to social justice work.

In Memoriam: Kenya Siana Flash, 1980-2021

Kenya Siana Flash was the librarian for political science, global information, and government information at the Marx Science and Social Science Library on the campus of Yale University.

Four African Americans Who Have Been Appointed to University Diversity Positions

Taking on new roles as diversity officers are Cindy Crusto at the Yale School of Medicine, Melvin Beavers at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, Krishauna Hines-Gaither at Mount Saint Mary's University in Los Angeles, and Sharon Perry-Fantini at Iowa State University.

Yale University Acquires a Collection of Gordon Parks’ Photographs

Gordon Parks was a true renaissance man. In addition to a long career as a photographer, he was a composer, musician, author, and filmmaker.

In Memoriam: Carol Lani Guinier, 1950-2022

Lani Guinier was the first woman of color to be a tenured professor at Harvard Law School. Earlier, she taught for 10 years at the law school of the University of Pennsylvania.

Three African Americans Who Have Been Named to Endowed Positions at Universities

Jeffrey A. Robinson was named to the Prudential Chair in Business at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Jacqueline Goldsby has been appointed the Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of African American Studies and English at Yale University and Adrian Epps holds the Bagwell Endowed Dean’s Chair at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.

In Memoriam: Albert Odontoh Richardson, 1946-2021

A native of Ghana, Albert Richardson was a professor emeritus of computer and electrical engineering at California State University, Chico. He joined the faculty there in 1989 and was named professor emeritus in 2012.

Vincent Brown Wins the Frederick Douglass Book Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Center

Vincent Brown, a professor of African and African American studies and American history at Harvard University, will share the Frederick Douglass Book Prize. The prize is awarded each year to the “best book(s) written in English about slavery, abolition and their legacies across all borders and all time.”

Yale University to Build a Memorial to Recognize Enslaved People Who Worked on Campus

Research by the Yale and Slavery Working Group found that enslaved people worked on the construction of Connecticut Hall on campus and that many leading figures associated with the early eras of the university held enslaved people.

Higher Education Grants or Gifts of Interest to African Americans

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.

Olufunke Fontenot is the New Provost at Fort Valley State University in Georgia

Before coming to Fort Valley State University in 2019, Dr. Fontenot served as the interim regional vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of South Florida – St. Petersburg. Dr. Fontenot also served as associate provost and associate vice president for academic affairs, and interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at Albany State University in Georgia.

Study Finds Differences in Perception of Mental Health Providers’ Cultural Competence

A new study by researchers at Yale University, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and Vanderbilt University finds that patients who identify as racial and ethnic minorities prefer medical providers who share and understand their culture, but those patients are not as likely as others to access providers who can provide such care.

A Large Group of African Americns Who Have Been Appointed to University Administrative Positions

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

In Memoriam: Albert J. Raboteau, 1943-2021

Albert Raboteau, the Henry W. Putnam Professor of Religion Emeritus at Princeton University, joined the faculty at the university in 1982. He served as chair of the department of religion from 1987 to 1992 and as dean of the Graduate School from 1992 to 1993.

African American Faculty Members Who Have Been Assigned to New Roles

The five Black faculty members who have been promoted or assigned to new posts are Jospeh Jordan at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dorothy E. Hines at the University of Kansas, Karida Brown at Fisk University in Nashville, John Francis at the Yale School of Medicine, and Deidra Hodges at Florida International University in Miami.

In Memoriam: Hardy T. Frye, 1939-2021

After earning a master's degree and a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Frye accepted an appointment at Yale as an assistant professor in 1976, where he taught for one year. He later served on the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz for more than two decades.

University of Pittsburgh Scholar Wins the Charles Horton Cooley Book Award

Waverly Duck, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, received the Charles Horton Cooley Book Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. Dr. Duck was recognized for co-authoring the book Tacit Racism, which examines the many ways in which racism is coded into the everyday social interactions of Americans.

Seven Black Administrators Who Have Been Assigned New Roles at Universities

Taking on new duties are Olufunke A. Fontenot at Fort Valley State University, Kimberly D. Clark-Shaw at Virginia Tech, Sidney Sessoms Jr. at Delaware State University, Shawna Cooper-Gibson at Boston College, Robert T. Seniors at Florida A&M University, Charlene Alexander at Ball State University, and Christie Taylor at Howard University.

Six Black Medical Students Join the Inaugural Meharry-Yale Summer Research Program

The students are working alongside Yale faculty members and residents, to begin building networks, and deepening their understanding of career paths in psychiatry, neurosurgery, and neuroscience, which is the inaugural program’s focus.

Yale School of Public Health Names a Scholarship After an African American Alumna

The executive master’s degree in public health scholarship at the Yale School of Public Health is being named in honor of Irene Trowell-Harris, the first African American woman in the history of the U.S. Air National Guard to be promoted to brigadier general and subsequently, in 1998, to two-star major general.

Four African Americans Who Have Stepped Down From Their Higher Education Posts

The four African Americans who have retired from their positions in the academic world are Forrester Lee at Yale University, Micheline Rice-Maximin at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, William Welburn at Marquette University in Milwaukee, and Lynn Thompson at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach Florida.

Melissa Nobles Appointed Chancellor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Since 2015, Dr. Nobles has led the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT. Her current research is focused on building a database of racial killings in the U.S. South, from 1930 to 1954, an archival project developed with the Northeastern University Law School’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice law clinic.

The Yale School of Art Has Selected Kymberly Pinder as Its New Leader

Kymberly Pinder, an internationally recognized scholar of race, representation, and murals, has been serving as acting president of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Earlier, she was dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico and a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Four Black Scholars Taking on New Assignments at Major Universities

The four scholars taking on new duties are Yohannes Haile-Selassie at Arizona State University, Cindy Crusto at the Yale School of Medicine, Patrick McPhail Martin at North Carolina A&T State University, and Ceasar McDowell at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In Memoriam: Esther Arvilla Harrison Hopkins, 1926-2021

Esther A. H. Hopkins was a biophysicist, chemist, educator, and environmental attorney. She taught for several years at what is now Virginia State University before embarking on a career as a research scientist.

Study Finds Blacks in Medical Schools Face an Onslaught of Microaggressions

Sixty-one percent of all respondents to a survey in a study led by scholars at Yale University experienced at least one microaggression a week. Students identifying as Black, Asian, multiracial, and female were the most likely to have experienced microaggressions at least weekly.

Renée T. White Appointed the Next Provost at The New School in New York City

Dr. White comes to The New School from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where she has served as provost and a professor of sociology since 2016. Previously she was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Simmons University in Boston from 2011 to 2016.

Four African American Scholars Appoointed to New Teaching Posts at Major Universities

The scholars in new faculty posts are Kwame Dawes at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nadia Brown at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Christopher Wayne Robinson at the Pennsylvania State University Allegheny Campus in McKeesport, and Roderick A. Ferguson at Yale Universsity.

Yale’s Marcella Nunez-Smith Honored to Her Work to Address COVID-19 Racial Disparities

Dr. Nunez-Smith, an associate professor and associate dean for health equity research at Yale Medical School, was honored for her work to address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and brown communities.

Five African American Faculty Members Who Are Taking on New Roles

The five Black scholars taking on new roles at Ijeoma Opara at the Yale School of Public Health, Walter Greason at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, John Brooks Slaughter at the University of Southern California, Crystal Wilkerson, of the University of Kentucky, and Timothy Adams Jr. at the University of Georgia.

A Quartet of Black Scholars Who Have Been Assigned New Faculty Roles

Taking on new positions or duties are Ernest Morrell at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, Mildred C. Joyner at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Sydney Freeman Jr. at the University of Idaho, and Chelsey Carter at the Yale School of Public Health.

Yale University Study Looks to End Racial Bias in Emergency Room Treatment

A new study led by Isaac Agboola, a third-year emergency room resident at Yale New Haven Medical Center, examines how bias influences emergency department treatment, particularly decisions over which patients must be restrained and/or sedated.

Three Black Scholars Appointed to Endowed Chairs at Yale University

Gerald Jaynes is a professor of economics, African American studies, and urban studies. Emily Greenwood was named the  John M. Musser Professor of Classics and Tavia Nyong’o was appointed William Lampson Professor of Theater and Performance Studies.

Five African Americans Scholars Who Have Been Named to New Positions in Academia

Appointed to new faculty positions are Phillip Atiba Goff at Yale University, Jomaira Salas Pujols at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Katwiwa Mule at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, Kimberly Juanita Brown at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Sonia Eden at Wayne State University in Detroit.

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.

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