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Alecia A. DeCoudreaux: 13th President of Mills College

Leshell Hatley — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:33:26 +0000

Alecia A. DeCoudreaux has been named the 13th president in Mills College’s 159-year history. She will assume leadership of the College on July 1, 2011.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, DeCoudreaux received a bachelor of arts degree in English and political science from Wellesley College in 1976 and a doctor of laws degree from the Indiana University School of Law at Bloomington in 1978.

DeCoudreaux brings to the Office of Mills College President an extensive and distinguished professional background. A senior executive at Eli Lilly and Company, one of Fortune magazine’s “Global Top Companies for Leaders,” she has served in a variety of important executive leadership roles over the span of the past three decades. As both a graduate of a women’s college and as chair of the board of Wellesley, one of the largest and most selective women’s colleges in the nation, DeCoudreaux provides Mills with a multifaceted professional background.

DeCoudreaux’s professional career is enhanced by extensive involvement in the communities where she has lived and worked, including volunteerism, community activism, and a record of service on numerous charitable and nonprofit boards. DeCoudreaux’s academic experience includes successful service as both a trustee and board chair at Wellesley, director of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association, director of the Indiana University Foundation, and member of the Indiana University School of Law Board of Visitors.

DeCoudreaux’s distinguished professional career began with private practice and continued through executive leadership positions in a Fortune 125 company. Currently DeCoudreaux serves as vice president and deputy general counsel at Eli Lilly and Company. She had been vice president and general counsel of Lilly USA since December 2005. Previously, DeCoudreaux was employed by Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, in San Francisco, before joining Lilly in 1980 as an attorney. In 1987, she became general counsel for Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., a former Lilly subsidiary located in Santa Clara, California. DeCoudreaux became director of community relations for Eli Lilly and Company in 1990, director for corporate affairs (state government and community relations) in 1991, and director of government relations (Washington DC) in 1993. She was named executive director of Lilly Research Laboratories, medical administration in 1994. In 1995, she became executive director of Lilly Research Laboratories, research planning and scientific administration, and was named vice president, law, Lilly Research Laboratories in June 1997. In November 1999, she became secretary and deputy general counsel of Eli Lilly and Company.

While achieving professional success, DeCoudreaux has demonstrated creativity, social responsibility, and community involvement. She has also shown acumen for budget management, fundraising, and alumnae relations and engagement. In addition to her positions at Wellesley, DeCoudreaux’s extensive board experience includes service as a board member of The Mind Trust; a member of the Economic Club of Indiana Board of Governors; a member of the United Way of Central Indiana Women’s Initiative; honorary director of Indiana University Foundation, where she served as director from 1998 through 2007; and an emeritus board member of the Indiana University School of Law at Bloomington Board of Visitors, the Women’s Fund of Central Indiana, and Indianapolis Downtown, Inc.

“It is with great honor that I accept the position of president of Mills College,” said Alecia DeCoudreaux. “It has been my stated long-term ambition to fill a leadership role in women’s education. I’m proud of the career I’ve led up until now, and I’ve certainly developed the professional and life skills necessary to fulfill the position of Mills College president. But ever since my college years at Wellesley, I’ve maintained my passion for women’s education. I’m ready now to follow my passion and that passion is what carries me into the academic world.”

DeCoudreaux continues, “I’m looking forward to working with the faculty, staff, and alumnae of Mills, whose reputation for passion and creativity is well known and highly regarded. I’m also looking forward to leading our diverse student body of bright young women and graduate students pursuing their advanced degrees. I am so honored to be a part of such a highly regarded institution with such a proud history. I will work hard to ensure my leadership builds on the success of the 12 great women and men who held this office before me. My first order of business as I plan our vision for the future is to listen to those around me.”

DeCoudreaux will succeed current Mills President Janet L. Holmgren on July 1, 2011. Holmgren, who began her 20-year presidency in 1991, will return to teaching at Mills, writing, and pursuing new avenues for women’s leadership.

What Colleagues Say About Alecia DeCoudreaux
“I am delighted for Alecia. This is a logical next step in her impressive career. Alecia DeCoudreaux has been enormously important to Wellesley. She has been deeply committed to advancing the college’s liberal arts mission, and Wellesley has thrived under her leadership. She has been highly skilled at directing a complex board governance structure in service of Wellesley’s goals and priorities. The trustees and I will miss her strong leadership.

“But Wellesley’s loss is Mills College’s gain. With her long and distinguished history of serving Wellesley well, I know she will do the same at Mills College. During Alecia’s tenure as chair of the board, Wellesley has successfully recruited and retained faculty of exceptional distinction and dedication. She has overseen a steady increase in fundraising and admission results. Alecia leaves us in a position of great strength. She has helped to secure Wellesley’s place as one of the finest undergraduate institutions in the world.” —H. Kim Bottomly, president of Wellesley College

“Alecia DeCoudreaux has provided exemplary service to Eli Lilly and Company over the span of three decades in a variety of important executive leadership roles. In addition, her admirable commitment to community service has benefited Indianapolis and many other locales. Alecia is a capable, caring, and enthusiastic leader, and a person who has served as a mentor and coach for numerous colleagues at Lilly and across the broad community. We wish her the very best in the next stage of her career as president of Mills College, where I have no doubt she will be very successful.” —John C. Lechleiter, PhD, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company

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Information and image from Mills College website.

Dr. Roland Boyd Scott: The Father of Sickle Cell Research in the US

Leshell Hatley — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:27:07 +0000

Dr. Roland Boyd Scott was, in the eyes of the public and of his physician colleagues, the father of research into sickle cell disease in the USA. He was born April 18, 1909, in Houston, Texas, USA and died from congestive heart failure aged 93 years in Washington, DC, USA, on Dec 10, 2002.

An allergist by training, he became a passionate advocate for those with sickle cell disease after seeing many children with its symptoms. Dr. Scott was a driving force behind the Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act of 1971, which established comprehensive research and treatment centers around the country for the disease.

“I think without a doubt, Dr Scott’s greatest contribution to sickle cell disease research and treatment was his role in launching the Sickle Cell Center Program”, William P Winter, acting director of Howard University’s Center for Sickle Cell Disease. “He lobbied Congress tirelessly and testified on a number of occasions to get the Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act of 1971 passed.”

Education

Dr. Scott grew up in Houston, Texas, and in Kansas City, Missouri, where he finished high school. He earned a bachelor’s degree and then a medical degree in 1934 from Howard University. He spent a year as an intern at the Kansas City General Hospital, then moved to Chicago, where he completed a paediatric residency at Provident Hospital and then a fellowship at the University of Chicago, Children’s Memorial Hospital, and the Chicago Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases.

Career

Along the way, Dr. Scott became board certified in allergy and immunology, as well as in paediatrics. Although he became a pioneer in sickle cell disease, he was not specifically trained as a haematologist.

At Howard University

In 1939, Scott returned to Howard University to become an assistant professor of paediatrics. He would spend the rest of his career at Howard, becoming chief and chair of the Pediatrics Department, from 1949 to 1973. He was trained as an allergist but turned his attention to sickle cell anemia in the 1950′s after he noticed a high number of African-American children appearing in the Howard Hospital emergency room with complications of the disease, according to colleagues.Through his research, Dr. Scott became a pre-eminent authority on sickle cell, a hereditary blood disorder, and lobbied for a national research and treatment effort. In 1972, with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Scott founded the Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease. He was the director of the center until 1990, when he retired and became emeritus professor of paediatrics and child health.

Research & Publications

Scott published more than 250 scientific papers on allergy, growth and development, and sickle cell disease. “His first publication on sickle cell disease, a 1948 report on the incidence of red cell sickling in newborn infants, was not only the first of its kind, but it was prophetic of the haemoglobinopathy newborn screening programmes which would be started over two decades later,” says Duane R Bonds, now leader of the Sickle Cell Disease Scientific Research Group at the US National Institutes of Health, said at Scott’s funeral.

Dr. Scott also published the first growth and development norms for black children, which are still in use, and examined the genetics of thalassaemia among people of African descent.

Awards

His many awards included the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Jacobi Award.

Private Practice

Scott’s active private practice in Washington, which he held after hours so that it did not interfere with his work at Howard, was complicated by racial segregation during the 1940s and 1950s. Back then, Bonds was one of Scott’s paediatric patients. “I remember his making house calls to our apartment on Champlain Street when I had the measles and rubella”, Bonds said. One Sunday, in 1950, Bonds cut her hand and her mother took her to the nearest emergency room, but they “sat for hours in the hospital emergency room without being seen quickly because we were black”, Bonds said. “Finally, in frustration, my mother called Dr Scott and he had us come to his office, where he stitched my hand himself.”

Scott is remembered for his spirit.

“The stories I have heard from former patients and colleagues tell of his willingness to see patients almost any time of the day or night and of his holding research conferences at his home lasting well past midnight, traits that suggest the ultimate workaholic”, Winter said. “He did enjoy an active social life, however, and I remember going to parties on special occasions at his home where at 2 am he was still dancing while people half his age were looking at the clock. And it wasn’t slow ballroom dancing, either.”

The Howard University and Center for Sickle Cell Disease are accepting posters for the 40th anniversary of the Founding of the Center for Sickle Cell Disease and 4th Roland B. Scott Memorial Symposium.

The theme of the symposium is “Pain in Sickle Cell Disease: Battling Stigma and Gaps in Knowledge.” Scholars, community members, government leaders and other stakeholders will gather for this unique daylong event on May 10, 2011 in Washington, D.C to have a continuing conversation about Sickle Cell Disease. The Symposium will include a Blood Drive and Sickle Cell Screenings.

The goals of the event are to explain what Sickle Cell Disease is, describe the cause and its manifestations, discuss how it affects the quality of life of patients and ways to mitigate those problems. High quality posters will reflect these goals and provide professional or community-based evidence.

Please review the following guidelines. If you have any questions, please contact the Scientific and Evaluation Committee Chair, Meseret Deressa at mderessa@howard.edu or 202-865-3388.

http://www.sicklecell.howard.edu/rolandbscott.htm

RSVP to the event now - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=194566297243116

Dr. Joy Lawson Davis: Gifted Education Researcher & Author

Leshell Hatley — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:05:11 +0000

Dr. Joy Lawson Davis has over 30 years of experience in the field gifted education. Among her positions have been that of a teacher; district level coordinator; and five years as State Specialist for Gifted Programs for the Virginia Department of Education.

Education

2008 Educational Doctorate, The College of William & Mary, (Major: Educational Policy, Planning and Leadership/Program; Emphasis – Gifted Education).

1992 Master of Arts in Education, The College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA.(Major: Gifted Education)

1975 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA (Major: Art Education)

Career

Dr. Davis is the author of the newly released book: Bright, Talented, & Black: A Guide for Families of African American Gifted Learners. Dr. Davis has been a consultant to educators around the world. As an assistant Professor of Education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, she teaches undergraduate & graduate courses in Diversity Education & Gifted Education, respectively.

She has also provided professional development workshops/seminars for educators in the Caribbean and South Africa serving as a consultant to the International Gifted Education Teacher Development Network (Iget).

Research

Dr. Davis’ research and publication interests have focused on improving access, equity, and retention of culturally diverse learners in gifted education programs and in family involvement in the lives of their gifted children, with particular emphasis on the needs of African American gifted learners. She holds two degrees (Masters and Doctorate) in gifted education from The College of William & Mary in Virginia, and is serving a second term as Chair of the National Association for Gifted Children’s Diversity & Equity Committee.

Most recently, Dr. Davis was named to the Advisory Board of Gifted Child Today, a practitioner-oriented peer reviewed journal with the largest subscription base of any gifted education journal in the nation.

Dr. Davis’ CV can be viewed here.

Service

Dr. Davis is also an ordained Baptist Minister, serving churches and communities in the Middle Peninsula of Virginia since 1995. She is married, has three adult children and shares four grandchildren w/ her husband.

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Information and photo provided by Dr. Joy Lawson Davis

Lowery Stokes Sims: first African-American curator to be hired by New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art

Leshell Hatley — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:20:15 +0000

Lowery Stokes Sims is Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design. From 2000-2007 Sims was executive director then president of The Studio Museum in Harlem and served as Adjunct Curator for the Permanent Collection. Sims was on the education and curatorial staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1972-1999. A specialist in modern and contemporary art she is known for her particular expertise in the work of African, Latino, Native and Asian American artists. She has published extensively and her research on the work of the Afro-Cuban Chinese Surrealist artist Wifredo Lam was published by the University of Texas Press in 2002. In 1997 she organized a survey of the work of Richard Pousette-Dart at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sims has lectured nationally and internationally and guest curated numerous exhibitions most recently at the National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica (2004), The Cleveland Museum of Art and the New York Historical Society (2006). She is the editor and an essayist for the catalogue of the National Museum of the American Indian’s 2008 retrospective of Fritz Scholder. In 2003-04 Sims served on the jury for the memorial for the World Trade Center and between 2004 and 2006 served as the chair of the Cultural Institutions Group, a coalition of museums, zoos, botanical gardens and performing organizations funded by the City of New York. Sims was a fellow at the Clark Art Institute in spring 2007. In 2005 and 2006 she was Visiting Professor at Queens College and Hunter College in New York City and in fall 2007 Visiting Scholar in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Here are links to her work on WorldCat - http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n84-228840

Education

Sims received her Ph.D. in art history in 1995 from the Graduate School of the City University of New York. The subject of her dissertation was “Wifredo Lam and the International Avant-Garde, 1923–1992,” which was published by the University of Texas Press (2002). Sims has received honorary degrees from the Maryland Institute College of Art (1988), Moore College of Art and Design(1991), Parsons School of Design at the New School University (2000), the Atlanta College of Art (2002), College of New Rochelle and Brown University (2003). She holds a B.A. in art history from Queens College of the City University of New York, her M.A. in art history from Johns Hopkins University. She graduated from Bishop Reilly HS in Fresh Meadows in 1966.

At the MET

At the Metropolitan Museum, she participated in the organization of several exhibitions including Ellsworth Kelly (1979), John Marin: Selected Works from the Museum’s Collection (1981), Henry Moore: 60 Years of His Art (1983), and Charles Burchfield (1984). In 1991, she curated Stuart Davis, American Painter, and she was the principal author of the catalogue. In 1995, Ms. Sims coordinated the Museum’s venue of the exhibition I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin, organized by the Museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, and curatedPaul Cadmus: The Seven Deadly Sins and Selections from the Collection. In 1997, Dr. Sims curated the exhibition Richard Pousette-Dart, 1916–1992 and coordinated Francesco Clemente: Indian Watercolors organized by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In 1999 she organizedHans Hofmann in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and coordinated the exhibition Barbara Chase-Riboud: Monument Drawings, organized by the St. John’s Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Sims also organized several exhibitions from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in cooperation with the American Federation of Arts, for which she was also involved in writing catalogues: The Figure in Twentieth Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1985), The Landscape in Twentieth Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1991), American Still Life Painting (1995). For more than a decade, Dr. Sims also was responsible for the annual installation of the Museum’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, including the 1999 installation, Abakanowicz on the Roof.

The Studio Museum in Harlem

At The Studio Museum in Harlem, Sims was the coordinating curator for the 2003 exhibition, Challenge of the Modern: African American Artists, 1925–1945, and Fred Brown: Icons and Heroes (2003), which she originally curated for the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

In 2004 she was the curator for Curator’s Eye, focusing on contemporary Installation art in Jamaica, at the National Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica. She was also the curator for The Persistence of Geometry, selections from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, which was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland in 2006. That same year she co-curated Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery at the New York Historical Society.

Lectures & Teachings

Sims has written extensively on modern and contemporary artists, with a special interest in African, Latino, Native and Asian American artists. She has lectured at Princeton University, Vassar College, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the High Museum, the Columbus Art Museum,University of Arizona at Tucson, Birmingham Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the University of Texas at Austin, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Florida International University, San Antonio Museum of Art, Hobart and William Smith College, The National Gallery of Bermuda, Ball State University and Wellesley College, among other institutions. In 1991 she received the Frank Jewett Mather Award from the College Art Association for distinction in art criticism.^[1]

Sims has also had extensive experience teaching art history and museum practice at Queens College, the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. She also has been a lecturer for the Internship Program at The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Curatorial and Museum Training Internship courses at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; and a visiting critic and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, the Maryland Institute College of Art, the University of Texas at Austin and theUniversity of Hawaii. In 2005 she was appointed A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

Guest Curator

She has served nationally and internationally as a juror and guest curator at The Queens Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Pratt Institute, the Caribbean Cultural Center (New York), Cooper Union, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, the California Museum of Afro-American History and Culture, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans and the National Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica.

Public Appointments

While at the Studio Museum Sims served as Chair of the Cultural Institutions Group, a coalition of botanical gardens, historic sites, museums and zoos funded by the City of New York. She also served on panels for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, TheMetropolitan Transportation Authority of New York City, The Metropolitan Life Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities. In 1981, Ms. Sims was elected member of the Commission on the Status of Women of the City of New York, and in 1987 was appointed for a five-year term to the New York State Council on the Arts by Governor Mario Cuomo. She has served on the board of Art Table, Inc. and the Caribbean Cultural Center and the advisory committee of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School for Social Research, and the advisory committee of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. She is currently on the boards of the Art Matters and Tiffany Foundations and Art 21. In 1993, she was elected to the board of the College Art Association for a four-year term, and was co-chair of the studio art program for the 1994 annual conference of the CAA. In 2003-2004, she served on the jury for the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition to choose the memorial for the World Trade Center site. In 2006, she was the Porter Colloquium Keynote Speaker.

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Information and Images from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowery_Stokes_Sims

http://juliemenin.com/category/topics/entertainment/?sort=alphabetical

We are back online!

Leshell Hatley — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 11:45:52 +0000

We are pleased to back online and are now at our 3rd hosting company so far this year. We hope this server is prepared to ‘serve’ our viewers well and we thank you all for your support while we were offline. Over the next few weeks, we will conduct a bit of spring cleaning, some reorganization, and perhaps maybe even a new look!

Please provide any comments and/or suggestions you may have below!

Welcome back!

-BSI Staff

Ory Okolloh: Kenyan Activist & Google’s New Policy Manager for Africa

Leshell Hatley — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:41:27 +0000

Ms. Ory Okolloh is the co-founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi and heads to Google as its new Policy Manager for Africa.

Early Life

Okolloh was born into a relatively poor family. She has said that her parents sent her to a private elementary school that they could “barely afford,” which “set the foundation for what ended up being my career.

Education

Ory graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. degree in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and graduated with a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Activist

In 2006 she co-founded the parliamentary watchdog site Mzalendo (Swahili: “Patriot”). The site sought to increase government accountability by systematically recording bills, speeches, MPs, standing orders, etc. When Kenya was engulfed in violence following a disputed presidential election in 2007, Okolloh helped create Ushahidi (Swahili: “testimony”), a website that collected and recorded eyewitness reports of violence using text messages and Google Maps. The technology has since been adapted for other purposes (including monitoring elections and tracking pharmaceutical availability) and used in a number of other countries.

Okolloh also has a personal blog, Kenyan Pundit, which was featured on Global Voices Online.

Career

She also works as a legal consultant for NGOs and has worked at Covington and Burling, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, and the World Bank in the past.

Public Speaker

She is a frequent speaker at conferences including TED Global and Poptech on issues around citizen journalism, the role of technology in Africa, and the role of young people in reshaping the future of Africa. She currently lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Heading to Google

Here, Ory writes about her new job at Google.

Dr. Jayfus Doswell: BioTechnology & Robotics Entrepreneur, Researcher, and Product Engineer

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:14:17 +0000

Dr. Jayfus T. Doswell

Dr. Jayfus Doswell is an accomplished entrepreneur and engineer. As the founder of Juxtopia, LLC, he and his company have manufactured robotics and context-aware augmented reality products. He is also the Chair of The Juxtopia Group, a nonprofit which host several interesting endeavors. One of which is occurring next week on December 8th, The Juxtopia Urban Learning Technology Conference. For more information and to register for this conference, please visit http://www.juxtopia.org/jult2010.

Early Life

Dr. Jayfus T. Doswell was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and attended Baltimore City public schools. Dr. Doswell was trained early in music (i.e., classical piano and violin) and studied martial arts (i.e., Tae-Kwon-Do, Kung-Fu, and Akido). Dr. Doswell competed in both and achieved concert master in a local Baltimore youth orchestra, and often won first place in martial art tournaments.

Education

After graduating from Baltimore City College High School, Dr. Doswell was accepted to Oberlin College on an academic scholarship to study Neuroscience and Pre-Med. After taking a few courses towards pre-med, Dr. Doswell graduated with degrees in computer science and cognitive neuropsychology. Dr. Doswell then enrolled in Howard University’s System and Computer Science program where he received his best education in software engineering where his knowledge secured him positions as a young senior software engineer at Lockheed Martin, Bearing Point, and SAIC.

While working, Dr. Doswell entered a Ph.D. program at age 26. Dr. Doswell also decided while working and earning a Ph.D. to start Juxtopia (juxtapositions among utopias) to improve human learning, life, and leisure performance.

Entreprenuer

Dr. Doswell took the Ph.D. in Information Technology from George Mason University in 2005 and immediately afterwards in 2005 secured Juxtopia’s first Small Business and Innovative Research Grant (SBIR) from the National Science Foundation that launched the R&D funding for Juxtopia’s flagship product, the Context-Aware Augmented Reality goggles and software. Furthermore, at the point of Dr. Doswell’s graduation, he contributed his 399 page dissertation on the architecture of developing a software based virtual instructor to the research community on learning technology, and he subsequently created the IEEE Virtual Instructor Pilot Research Group (VIPRG) that immediately attracted multidisciplinary researchers around the world to collaborate on building an international working standard on the virtual instructor architecture. Dr. currently directs this group under The Juxtopia Group, described in this bio.

Career

Dr. Jayfus T. Doswell is currently founder, president, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Juxtopia®, LLC, a privately held biomedical and information technology company with a mission to improve human performance. At Juxtopia, LLC, Dr. Doswell initiated the alliance of colleges and universities that collaborate effectively on developing various subsystems for Juxtopia products for which colleges and universities may achieve technology transfer based license royalty. Additionally, Dr. Doswell initiated the commercial product based learning methodology for which college students starting at the community college level contribute to building innovative products for Juxtopia. Moreover, 100% of Juxtopia’s product development is supported by federal and state based grants including National Science Foundation SBIRs, U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command funding, Maryland TEDCO, and MIPS funding.

Dr. Doswell also chairs the Juxtopia Group, Inc., a not for profit, 501c3 organization with a mission to improve the performance of underserved and disadvantaged populations in both learning and health. One of The Juxtopia Group’s program is the Juxtopia® Urban Robotics Brilliant Application Network (JURBAN) that entered into the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition, and is the only team in Baltimore, Maryland, and one of the only space robotics teams on the east coast to compete in this challenge. Moreover, it is the only team in the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition significantly comprised of team members from underserved and disadvantaged groups and HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions. The Juxtopia Group also organizes conferences including the International Virtual Instructor, Juxtopia Urban Learning Technology, and Space Entrepreneurship Forum conferences. Furthermore, The Juxtopia Group publishes the International Journal for Urban Learning Technology (iJULT).

The Juxtopia Group is also the proud sponsor of the Annual Juxtopia Urban Learning Technology (JULT) Conference happening next week on December 8, 2010 as a part of Computer Science Education Week. For more information and to register, please visit http://www.juxtopia.org/jult2010.

Service

Dr. Doswell also serves as the chair of Biotechnology at Sojourner Douglass College in Baltimore, Maryland and currently building the program from the ground up. To create a biotechnology entrepreneurship pipeline, Dr. Doswell was contracted by Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) to create the Biotechnology Curriculum for BCPS to create a four year biotechnology curriculum with a capstone course to train inner city Baltimore students on creating biotechnology and biomedical innovations with commercial potential. Dr. Doswell also facilitated alliances with local Biotechnology Companies where graduating students at high school or college can secure internships or high paying employment opportunities.

Dr. Doswell also sits on several not for profit boards and is an active member of the American Public Health Association (APHA) Health Informatics and Information Technology (HIIT) Section, American Telemedicine Association (ATA), Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).

Research

Dr. Doswell actively conducts research on how to improve human performance and focuses on research including cognitive science for human performance systems; wearable devices and operating systems; virtual instructor development; consumer telehealth and remote monitoring; personalized medicine; biomedical device design; public health informatics; and nanoinformatics.

Cathy J. Cohen: Professor of Political Science and Social Justice Activist

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:49:18 +0000

Cathy J. Cohen

Cathy J. Cohen (born 1962) is an American author, feminist and social activist whose work has focused on the African American experience in politics from a perspective which is underlined by intersectionality. She is the David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago. She is also the Deputy Provost for Graduate Education and the former Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago. Her major interests include – American Politics, African American Politics; Marginal Groups; and Social Movements.

As an academic activist Dr. Cohen frequently writes and speaks about gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, and their interrelatedness, and connection to power. This approach puts her in a class of leftist intellectuals who work to have social and public policy influence the lives of marginalized groups in a positive way.

Dr. Cohen is one of the founding board members of the Audre Lorde project and is active in a number of organizations working on social justice issues. She moderated the plenary of the Applied Research Center’s 2010 conference “Popularizing Racial Justice”, and has served as secretary of the American Political Science Association (APSA).

Education

She received her BA from Miami University; Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1993 and began her academic career at Yale University where she received tenure. Professor Cohen joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 2002.

Author

Cohen is the author of The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics (University of Chicago Press, 1999). She is co-editor of Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader (NYU Press, 1997) with Kathleen Jones and Joan Tronto. She also has a new book entitled Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics (Oxford University Press). Her articles have been published in numerous journals and edited volumes including the American Political Science Review, NOMOS, GLQ, Social Text, and the DuBois Review.

Awards

Cohen is the recipient of numerous awards including the Robert Wood Johnson Investigator’s Award, the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Fellowship, and two major research grants from the Ford Foundation for her work as principal investigator of the Black Youth Project and the Mobilization, Change and Political and Civic Engagement Project.

Service

Cohen serves on a number of national and local advisory boards and is the co-editor with Frederick Harris of a book series at Oxford University Press entitled “Transgressing Boundaries: Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities.” In addition to her academic work, Cohen has always been politically active. She was a founding board member and former co-chair of the board of the Audre Lorde Project in NY. She was also on the board of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press as well as the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at CUNY. Cohen was a founding member of Black AIDS Mobilization (BAM!) and one of the core organizers of two international conferences “Black Nations / Queer Nations?” and “Race, Sex, Power.” Cohen has also served as an active member in numerous organizations such as the Black Radical Congress, African American Women in Defense of Ourselves, and Ella’s Daughters. Currently, Cohen serves as a Board Member of the Arcus Foundation and a Governing Board member of the University of Chicago’s four charter schools.

Books

Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics
(Oxford University Press 2010)

Click here to for more information on the book, including reviews, related BYP blogs, and an interview with Cathy Cohen.

The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics
(University of Chicago Press 1999)

Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader
Co-edited with Kathleen Jones and Joan Tronto (NYU, 1997)

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Information & image from – http://www.blackyouthproject.com/project/cathy-j-cohen/

Jerri DeVard: Nokia’s New Chief Marketing Officer

Leshell Hatley — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:43:07 +0000

Jerri DeVard

Jerri L. DeVard has been Principal of DeVard Marketing Group since 2007. She is responsible for national marketing, advertising, brand management, online marketing and multicultural marketing. Nokia just hired Ms. DeVard as their new Chief Marketing Officer (November 2010).

Ms. DeVard is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Spelman College and has been since 2005. She is currently the Vice Chair.

Early Life

DeVard was born in Harlem, an uptown neighborhood of New York City with a rich African-American history. Her mother, Jean DeVard-Kemp, taught her the value of education by her own example, earning a college degree, a master’s, and a Ph.D. while working as a single mother supporting two children. Jerri DeVard describes her mother as her “hero.”

Education

Ms. DeVard graduated from Spelman College with a degree in Economics (Class of 1979) and obtained an MBA in Marketing from Clarke Atlanta University’s Graduate School of Business.

Career

Ms. DeVard served as the Senior Vice President of Retail Markets Group of Verizon Enhanced Communities. She served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Brand Management of Verizon Communications Inc. from 2003 to 2005. Ms. DeVard served as the Chief Marketing Officer for Citigroup, where she was responsible for the overall marketing, sales and integration of Citigroup’s e-commerce division as well as development and execution of the advertising and marketing for the AOL and Microsoft Partnerships. Prior to 2003, she held a variety of positions, including the Chief Marketing Officer of the e-Consumer business at Citibank N.A.; Vice President of Marketing for Revlon Inc.’s Color Cosmetics; Vice President of Marketing for Harrah’s Entertainment; Director of Marketing for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings; and several brand management positions at the Pillsbury Company.

Ms. DeVard has significant expertise in brand management and marketing solutions for consumer products companies. She serves as a director of Gurwitch Products, as a member of PepsiCo African American Advisory Board. She served as an Independent Director of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation from February 2, 2004 to 2006.

“Jerri has an incredible ability to see things from the eye of the customer,” says Stephen P. Joyce, vice president and managing director of Citibank where DeVard was appointed vice president of new business development in March 1998. “Her energy level is infectious, and she inspires others to want to follow her lead.”

Service & Recognition

DeVard was recognized as one of Black Enterprise magazine’s 75 Most Powerful African-Americans in Corporate America and was named among the Wall Street Journal’s Women to Watch. DeVard is a member of the Board of Directors of Tommy Hilfiger Corp. She also serves on the Pepsi African-American Advisory Board. In addition, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Executive Leadership Council and the Executive Committee for the American Advertising Federation Board (AAF). DeVard is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Ever the optimist, DeVard offers this key to success: “Find what you’re good at, know what you enjoy, then develop the confidence to go after what you want.”

===

Information obtained from various resulting articles from a Google Search of Jerri DeVard.

Image from: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/11/24/businessinsider-jerri-devard-11.DTL

Dr. Chad Jenkins: Associate Professor of Computer Science, Brown University

Leshell Hatley — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:48:13 +0000

Dr. Chad Jenkins was recently promoted and granted tenure within the Computer Science Department at Brown University. The Department announced the promotion of Chad Jenkins to Associate Professor with tenure, effective July 1, 2010.

“Chad’s promotion recognizes his outstanding research work, innovative teaching, and exemplary service,” said Department Chair Roberto Tamassia.

Education

Dr. Jenkins earned his B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics at Alma College (1996), M.S. in Computer Science at Georgia Tech (1998), and Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Southern California (2003). Prof. Jenkins was selected as a Sloan Research Fellow in 2009.

Awards

Dr. Jenkins was selected as a Sloan Research Fellow in 2009. He is a recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for his work in physics-based human tracking and of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his work on robot learning from multivalued human demonstrations. He also received Young Investigator awards from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for his research in learning dynamical primitives from human motion and from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) for his work in manifold learning and multi-robot coordination.

Research

Dr. Jenkin’s research addresses problems in robot learning and human-robot interaction, primarily focused on robot learning from demonstration, as well as topics in computer vision, machine learning, and computer animation. Videos of Chad’s current research work can be found on the YouTube channel of the Brown Robotics Group. Visit http://brown-robotics.org to learn more about Dr. Jenkin’s Robotics Lab at Brown University.

Prof. Jenkins’ work strives to address three basic questions. First, how can we capture data from the world that is representative of human performance? Second, how can machine learning and data analysis be used to extract dynamical structure from performance data? Lastly, how can we utilize learned dynamics for building autonomous robot controllers and perception mechanisms?

His previous efforts were mostly geared towards humanoid robotics with respect to learning primitive behaviors for robot control through imitation. More generally, he addresses perception, control, and learning issues at the intersection of robotics, computer vision, computer animation, machine learning and interactive systems.

Author

In 2009, Chad co-authored Creating Games: Mechanics, Content, and Technology with Brown CS alum Morgan McGuire. He has also authored chapters for several other books, including Data-Driven 3D Facial Animation, Human-Robot Interaction and From Motor to Interaction Learning in Robots.

“I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of the Computer Science Department at Brown,” said Chad. “My promotion is both a reflection of the supportive culture and community spirit of the department as well as the hard work of the students and post-docs who have been in my group. I look forward to continued success at Brown, especially with our new robotics lab space in the CIT building.”

[HBCU Presidents] Dr. Reginald S. Avery: Coppin State University’s 5th President

Leshell Hatley — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:55:08 +0000

Dr. Reginald S. Avery officially assumed the presidency of 108-year-old Coppin State University, on January 14, 2008. Dr. Avery, who was serving as Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of South Carolina Upstate, becomes Coppin’s fifth president, succeeding Dr. Stanley Battle who resigned last June to become Chancellor of North Carolina A&T State University. He brings more than 35-years of experience in higher education to Coppin State and vows a strong allegiance to its mission and a pledge to advance excellence and effectiveness.

Education

Dr. Avery holds a Ph.D. from the Florence Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, an M.S.W. from the George Williams College of Aurora University, and a B.S. in sociology from North Carolina A&T State University.

Career

Dr. Avery served as Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor at the University of South Carolina Upstate (USC) since 2003. In 2006-07, he served as the institution’s Acting Chancellor while the Chancellor was on sabbatical. Previously, he was Provost at Alma College in Michigan, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Kentucky State University and Founding Dean of the School of Professional Programs at Benedict College in South Carolina. He served on the faculty of the University of Tennessee and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. While holding leading posts at USC Upstate, Dr. Avery served on several boards, including those of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, Urban League of the Upstate, and 100 Black Men.

Several Reconfigurations in Progress: No New Posts Until November 1st

Leshell Hatley — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:16:24 +0000

The Black Scholars Index is undergoing enormous growing pains as your interest and support has caused us to outgrow our current web server configuration ….and we are happy about that.

Web Server

We have outgrown our current web server and are working to determine the best options and ultimate decision for our next server and other back-end configurations.

Front Page Redesign

We are also going to take this time to reconfigure a few aspects on the front-end of the website to help everyone find information better.

Your Suggestions

While we are working on our end, we’d love to hear your suggestions. Please contact us and share your thoughts, idea, and support with us now!

Please excuse our absence this week!

Leshell Hatley — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 06:45:45 +0000

Please excuse our absence this week. We must stick our head in the sand and get some internal work accomplished. While we are away, please enjoy over 200 posts/features of African-American scholars!... Read more.. Related posts:

[From Our Black Scholars Directory] Dr. Beverly Greene – Professor of Psychology at St. John’s University

Leshell Hatley — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:29:46 +0000

Dr. Beverly Greene is a tenured Professor of Psychology at St. John’s University in New York and a Practicing Clinical Psychologist. Her area of specialization includes examining the role of institutionalized racism, sexism, heterosexism and other oppressive ideologies in the paradigms of psychology and practice of psychotherapy in organized mental health – understanding psychological resilience and vulnerability in socially marginalized people and their use in psychotherapy.

Education
B.A., 1973, New York University, Psychology
M.A., 1977, Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, Clinical Psychology
Ph.D., 1983, Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, Clinical Psychology

Dr. Greene was awarded a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Derner Institute of Adelphi University, and was a Doctoral Fellow in Mental Retardation at the Mental Retardation Institute of New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York.

Author

She has served on the editorial boards of numerous scholarly journals and is the author of nearly 100 publications in the psychological literature. Nine of those publications have received national awards as significant contributions to the psychological literature on women, women of color, sexual minorities, African American women and families.

She is the founding co-editor of the APA Div. 44 book series Psychological Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Issues.

Honors & Awards

She is also the recipient of numerous national awards that include:

the 1996 Outstanding Leadership Award from the APA Committee on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns;
2000 APA Society for the Psychology of Women Heritage Award;
2003 APA Committee on Women in Psychology Distinguished Leadership Award;
2004 Award for Distinguished Senior Career Contributions to Ethnic Minority Research(APA Division 45);
2005 Stanley Sue Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Diversity in Clinical Psychology (APA Division 12);
2006 Helms Award for Scholarship and Mentoring (TC, Columbia Univ Cross Cultural Roundtable);
2006 Florence Halpern Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Clinical Psychology(APA Division 12);
2007 Distinguished Scientific Contributions to LGB Psychology Award (APA Division 44);
2007 Distinguished Career Award (Assn for Women in Psych);
2008 Carolyn Wood Sherif Award(APA Division 35);
2009 Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest Senior Career Award(APA).

Service

A Fellow of 7 divisions of APA,(9,12,29.35.42.44.45) she has served in many leadership positions in the association and currently serves on the Division 35 Executive Board, the Association’s Policy and Planning Board and a representative of Division 44 to the APA Council of Representatives.

Organizational Affiliations

American Psychological Association, Fellow
Association for Women in Psychology
American Orthopsychiatric Association, Fellow
Academy of Clinical Psychology, Fellow

Information from Our Black Scholars Directory. Dr. Greene’s Profile can be viewed here.

You too can become a part of our Black Scholars Directory NOW!

Dr. Stacey Franklin Jones: New Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Bowie State

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:54:33 +0000

The search for Bowie State University’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs has been successfully concluded. Dr. Stacey Franklin Jones began serving in that capacity July 1, 2010. She came to Bowie State from Benedict College where she serves as Senior Vice President.

Education

A magna cum laude graduate of Howard University, Dr. Jones received two master’s degrees in Engineering and Applied Science from Johns Hopkins University, one in Numerical Science and the other in Technical Management. She holds a doctoral degree in Computer Science from the George Washington University. Dr. Jones has published numerous articles and book chapters, including over 40 technical reports. In addition, she has delivered international scholarly presentations.

Career

Dr. Jones has led many interesting and exciting information technology initiatives at Benedict, including the college’s first campus-wide infrastructure to perform research and develop applications via a high speed wireless network. Her current portfolio at Benedict includes oversight of the Business Development Center, Sponsored Programs and Research, and Government and External Relations. Previously, she served as Dean for the School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Prior to her leadership role at Benedict, Dr. Jones taught computer science courses and was a research scientist at Johns Hopkins University. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technology university in the U.S., she worked with distinguished President Shirley Ann Jackson.

At Bowie State

Dr. Jones has an excellent reputation for being able to work with people and to move aggressively to achieve priorities and agendas.

Her appointment was the result of a highly competitive national search that garnered an outstanding pool of candidates. Dean Antionette Coleman, chairperson, and the Provost Search Committee led the process in selecting the university’s new academic officer.

Jones’ appointment follows a period of transition since the announcement last December that Bowie State’s Vice President and General Counsel, Karen Johnson Shaheed, would serve as Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. The campus community thanks Attorney Shaheed for her willingness to take on this tremendous responsibility and appreciate her strong leadership during this transition.

===

Feature influenced by Dr. Quincy Brown. Information from Bowie State’s website.

Geoffrey Canada: President & CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:03:41 +0000

In his 20-plus years with Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc., Geoffrey Canada has become nationally recognized for his pioneering work helping children and families in Harlem and as a passionate advocate for education reform.

Joining the organization in 1983, Mr. Canada became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Harlem Children’s Zone in 1990. The New York Times Magazine called the agency’s work, “one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time.” In October 2005, Mr. Canada was named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News and World Report.

About Harlem Children’s Zone

In 1997, the agency launched the Harlem Children’s Zone Project, which targets a specific geographic area in Central Harlem with a comprehensive range of services. The Zone Project today covers 100 blocks and aims to serve over 10,000 children.

The New York Times Magazine said the Zone Project “combines educational, social and medical services. It starts at birth and follows children to college. It meshes those services into an interlocking web, and then it drops that web over an entire neighborhood….The objective is to create a safety net woven so tightly that children in the neighborhood just can’t slip through.”

The work of Mr. Canada and HCZ has become a national model and has been the subject of many profiles in the media. Their work has been featured on “60 Minutes,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “The Today Show,” “Black in America 2,” “This American Life,” “Good Morning America,” “Nightline,” “The Charlie Rose Show,” as well in articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, USA Today and Newsday.

More information about Harlem’s Children Zone can be found here http://www.hcz.org.

About Geoffrey Canada

Education

Geoffrey Canada

Mr. Canada grew up in the South Bronx in a poor, sometimes-violent neighborhood. Despite his troubled surroundings, Mr. Canada was able to succeed academically, receiving a bachelor of arts degree from Bowdoin College and a master’s degree in education from the Harvard School of Education. After graduating from Harvard, Mr. Canada decided to work to help children who, like himself, were disadvantaged by their lives in poor, embattled neighborhoods.

He has received honorary degrees from Harvard University, Bowdoin College, Williams College, John Jay College, Bank Street College and Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary.

Author/Books

Drawing upon his own childhood experiences and at the Harlem Children’s Zone, Mr. Canada has written two books: “Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America,” published in 1995 by Beacon Press, and “Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America,” published in 1998 by Beacon Press. In its review of “Fist Stick Knife Gun,” Publishers Weekly, “a more powerful depiction of the tragic life of urban children and a more compelling plea to end ‘America’s war against itself’ cannot be imagined.”

Paul Tough also wrote about about Mr. Canada, entitled “Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America.”

Awards

For his years of work advocating for children and families in some of America’s most devastated communities, Mr. Canada was a recipient of the first Heinz Award in 1994. In 2004, he was given the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education and Child Magazine’s Children’s Champion Award. In 2009, he received the Independent Sector’s John W. Gardner Leadership Award.

He has also received the Heroes of the Year Award from the Robin Hood Foundation, The Jefferson Award for Public Service, the Spirit of the City Award from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Brennan Legacy Award from New York University and the Common Good Award from Bowdoin College.

Martial Artist

A third-degree black belt, Mr. Canada is also the founder (in 1983) of the Chang Moo Kwan Martial Arts School. Despite his busy schedule as head of HCZ, he continues to teach the principles of Tae Kwon Do to community youth along with anti-violence and conflict-resolution techniques.

Career of Service

In 2006, Mr. Canada was selected by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as co-chair of The Commission on Economic Opportunity, which was asked to formulate a plan to significantly reduce poverty. In 2007, he was appointed co-chair of New York State Governor’s Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board.

Mr. Canada is also the East Coast Regional Coordinator for the Black Community Crusade for Children. The Crusade is a nationwide effort to make saving black children the top priority in the black community. This initiative is coordinated by Marian Wright Edelman and the Children’s Defense Fund.

Mr. Canada joined Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc. (then called the Rheedlen Foundation) in 1983, as Education Director. Prior to that, he worked as Director of the Robert White School, a private day school for troubled inner-city youth in Boston.

The National Book Award-winning author Jonathan Kozol called Mr. Canada, “One of the few authentic heroes of New York and one of the best friends children have, or ever will have, in our nation.”

BSI Turns 1 Today!

Leshell Hatley — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:50:52 +0000

Happy First Anniversary to The Black Scholars Index! The Black Scholars Index has been in its current form for exactly one year today! Check out how far we've come - see our old website before we started our daily features. Please help us celebrate and share your thoughts, suggestions, and maybe even testimonies of how BSI has impacted your life and the lives of those around you! We'd love to hear from you as we prepare to improve for year two! We are proud to help make sc... Read more.. Related posts:

Your Testimonials Needed Below!

BSI Week in Review: January 8, 2011

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Kelly Miller: First African-American Mathematics Graduate Student and Influential Founder of Howard’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center

Leshell Hatley — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:40:57 +0000

In 1887, Kelly Miller became the first African-American Mathematics Graduate Student. He went on to become extremely influential at Howard University and planted the seed for what is now called the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University.

Early Life

Kelly Miller was the sixth of ten children born to Kelly Miller, a free Negro who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and Elizabeth (Roberts) Miller, a slave.

Education

Miller received his early education in one of the local primary schools established during Reconstruction and, based on the recommendation of a missionary (Reverend Willard Richardson) who recognized Miller’s mathematical aptitude, Miller attended the Fairfield Institute in Winnsboro, South Carolina from 1878 to 1880. Awarded a scholarship to Howard University, he completed the Preparatory Department’s three-year curriculum in Latin, Greek, and mathematics in two years (1880-1882), then attended the College Department at Howard from 1882 to 1886.

During the period from 1882 to 1886, while Miller attended the College Department at Howard University, he also worked as a clerk for the U.S. Pension Office for two years. Kelly Miller was appointed to the position in the Pension Office after taking the civil service examination a test prescribed by the Civil Service Act passed during the administration of President Grover Cleveland. Miller’s greatest influence while at Howard University where his professors of Latin (James Monroe Gregory) and History (Howard president William Weston Patton, who also taught philosophy and conducted weekly vesper services required of all students). He received a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from Howard University in 1886. Miller continued to work at the Pension Office after graduation in 1886. He also studied advanced mathematics (1886-1887) with Captain Edgar Frisby, an English mathematician at the U.S. Naval Observatory. Frisby’s chief at the observatory, Simon Newcomb, who was also a professor of mathematics at Johns Hopkins University, and who recommended Miller for admission to Hopkins University President Daniel Coit Gilman.

From Howard University, Kelly Miller received a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Mathematics (1901) and a law degree (LL.D.) in 1903.

First African-American Graduate Student in Mathematics

Johns Hopkins University had recently become the first American school to offer graduate work in mathematics. As Miller was to be the first African American student admitted to the university, the recommendation was decided by the Board of Trustees, who decided to admit Miller based on the university founder’s known Quaker beliefs.

From 1887 to 1889 Miller performed graduate work in Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy. When an increase in tuition ($100 to $200) prevented Miller from continuing his studies, Kelly Miller left (and Johns Hopkins closed its doors to Blacks) and taught at the M Street High School in Washington, D.C. (1889-1890), whose principal was Francis L. Cardozo. [Note: One source reports that Kelly Miller left school after deciding that his best contribution would be in the areas of civil rights.]

Kelly Miller

Career

After teaching mathematics briefly at the M Street High School in Washington, D.C. (1889-1890), he was appointed to the faculty of Howard University in 1890. Five years later Miller added sociology to Howard’s curriculum because he thought that the new discipline was important for developing objective analyses of the racial system in the United States. As dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, he modernized the classical curriculum, strengthening the natural and social sciences.

From 1895 to 1907 Miller was professor of mathematics and sociology, but he taught sociology exclusively after that, serving from 1915 to 1925 as head of the new sociology department. In 1894 Miller had married Annie May Butler, a teacher at the Baltimore Normal School, with whom he had five children.

Noted for his brilliant mind, Miller rapidly became a major figure in the life of Howard University. In 1907 he was appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. During his twelve-year deanship the college grew dramatically, as the old classical curriculum was modernized and new courses in the natural sciences and the social sciences were added. Miller’s recruiting tours through the South and Middle Atlantic states were so successful that the enrollment increased from 75 undergraduates in 1907 to 243 undergraduates in 1911.

Although Miller was a leader at Howard for most of his tenure there, his national importance derived from his intellectual leadership during the conflict between the “accommodationism” of Booker T. Washington and the “radicalism” of the nascent civil rights movement led by W. E. B. Du Bois. Critical of Washington’s famous Cotton States Exposition Address (1895) in 1896, Miller later praised Washington’s emphasis on self-help and initiative. He remained an opponent of the exaggerated claims made on behalf of industrial education and became one of the most effective advocates of higher education for black Americans when it was attacked as “inappropriate” for a people whose social role was increasingly limited by statute and custom to agriculture, some skilled trades, unskilled labor, and domestic service.

Education Advocate

In the Educational Review, Dial, Education, the Journal of Social Science, and other leading journals, Miller argued that blacks required wise leadership in the difficult political and social circumstances following the defeat of Reconstruction, and only higher education could provide such leaders. Moreover, the race required physicians, lawyers, clergymen, teachers, and other professionals whose existence was dependent on higher education. Excluded from most white colleges, black Americans would have to secure higher education in their own institutions, Miller argued, and some of them, like Howard, Fisk, and Atlanta Universities, would emphasize liberal education and the professions rather than the trades and manual arts (industrial education) stressed at Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes. In the debate between the advocates of collegiate and industrial education, Miller maintained that the whole matter was one of “ratio and proportion” not “fundamental controversy.” Recognized as one of the most influential black educators in the nation because of his extensive writing and his leadership at Howard, Miller was sought out by both camps in the controversy but was trusted by neither because of his refusal to dogmatically support either of the rival systems.

Known as “philosopher of the race question”

Miller’s reputation as a “philosopher of the race question” was based on his brilliant articles, published anonymously at first, on “radicals” and “conservatives” in the Boston Transcript (18, 19 Sept. 1903). With some alterations, these articles later became the lead essay in his book Race Adjustment (1908). Miller’s essays insisted on the right of black Americans to protest against the injustices that had multiplied with the rise of the white supremacy movement in the South, as the Du Bois “radicals” did, but he also advocated racial solidarity, thrift, and institution-building as emphasized by the followers of Washington.

Characteristically, Miller had two reputations as a public policy analyst, first as a compromiser between black radicals and conservatives, and second as a race spokesman during the prolonged crisis of disfranchisement and the denial of civil rights by white supremacists and their elected representatives in Congress.

The Disgrace of Democracy: An Open Letter to President Woodrow Wilson, a pamphlet published in August 1917, was Miller’s most popular effort. Responding to recent race riots in Memphis and East St. Louis, Miller argued that a “democracy of race or class is no democracy at all.” Writing to Woodrow Wilson, he said,

“It is but hollow mockery of the Negro when he is beaten and bruised in all parts of the nation and flees to the national government for asylum, to be denied relief on the basis of doubtful jurisdiction. The black man asks for protection and is given a theory of government.”

More than 250,000 copies of the pamphlet were sold, and the military authorities banned it on army posts.

Contributions to Sociology

Although Miller was best known as a controversialist, he also made important but frequently overlooked contributions to the discipline of sociology. His earliest contribution was his analysis of Frederick L. Hoffman’s Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, published by the American Economic Association in 1896. Hoffman attempted to demonstrate that the social disorganization of black Americans (weak community institutions and family structure) was caused by an alleged genetic inferiority and that their correspondingly high mortality rate would result in their disappearance as an element of the American population. Miller’s refutation of Hoffman’s claims, A Review of Hoffman’s Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, published by the American Negro Academy in 1897, was based on a technical analysis of census data.

Perhaps Miller’s most lasting contribution to scholarship was his pioneering advocacy of the systematic study of black people. In 1901 he proposed to the Howard board of trustees that the university financially support the publications of the American Negro Academy, whose goals were to promote literature, science, art, higher education, and scholarly works by blacks, and to defend them against “vicious assaults.” Although the board declined, it permitted the academy to meet on the campus. Convinced that Howard should use its prestige and location in Washington to become a national center for black studies, Miller planned a “Negro-Americana Museum and Library.” In 1914 he persuaded Jesse E. Moorland, a Howard alumnus and Young Men’s Christian Association official, to donate to Howard his large private library on blacks in Africa and in the United States as the foundation for the proposed center. This became the Moorland Foundation (reorganized in 1973 as the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center), a research library, archives, and museum that has been vital to the emergence of sound scholarship in this field.

Demotion

The years after World War I were difficult ones for Miller. J. Stanley Durkee, the last of Howard’s white presidents, was appointed in 1918 and set out to curtail the baronial power of the deans by building a new central administration. Miller, a conspicuously powerful dean, was demoted in 1919 to dean of a new junior college, which was later abolished in 1925. A leader in the movement to have a black president of Howard, Miller was a perennial favorite of the alumni but was never selected.

Although his influence at Howard declined significantly by the late 1920s through his retirement in 1934, Miller’s stature as a commentator on race relations and politics remained high. He had become alarmed by the vast social changes stimulated by World War I and was seen as increasingly conservative.

He opposed the widespread abandonment of farming by black Americans and warned that the mass migration to cities would be socially and culturally destructive. At a time when many younger blacks regarded labor unions as progressive forces, Miller was skeptical of them, citing their history of persistent racial discrimination. He remained an old-fashioned American patriot despite the nation’s many disappointing failures to extend democracy to black Americans.

As a weekly columnist in the black press, Miller’s views were published in more than one hundred newspapers. By 1923 it was estimated that his columns reached half a million readers.

Miller died at his home on the campus of Howard University.

Kelly Miller Middle School is located at 217 49th Street Northeast, Washington, DC

Information obtained from http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/special/miller_kelley.html

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Nannie Helen Burroughs: Educator, Orator, Religious Leader, and Businesswoman

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:17:31 +0000

Nannie Helen Burroughs was an African American educator, orator, religious leader, and businesswoman. She gained national recognition for her 1900 speech “How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping,” at the National Baptist Convention. This address dealt with the oppression that the black women of the early twentieth century were feeling because of the treatment from the black men. She also wrote The 12 Things The Negro Must Do For Himself was a booklet sold in the early 1900′s. The retail price for this booklet was 10 cents.

Early Life

Nannie Helen Burroughs was born on May 2, 1879, in Orange, Virginia. Her parents were John and Jennie Burroughs. They were both ex-slaves. Her father was a farmer and itinerant Baptist preacher; her mother was a cook. After the death of her father when Nannie was five, she and her younger sister were brought to Washington, D.C. by their mother in pursuit of a better education.

Education

In 1896, Nannie graduated with honors in business and domestic science from the Colored High School on M Street (now Dunbar High School). She received an honorary M.A. degree from Eckstein-Norton University in Kentucky in 1907.

Career

In 1896, Burroughs helped establish the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).

In 1897, Burroughs started work as an associate editor at the Christian Banner in Philadelphia, Pa.

In 1900, Burroughs moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to work as a secretary for the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention.

In 1909, she founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C., which was renamed in her honor the Nannie Helen Burroughs School after her death and is a National Historic Landmark. The school emphasized preparing students for employment. Burroughs offered courses in domestic science and secretarial skills, but also in unconventional occupations such as shoe repair, barbering, and gardening.

Burroughs created a creed of racial self-help through her program of the three Bs-the Bible, the bath, and the broom. The Bible, the bath, and the broom stood for a clean life, a clean body, and a clean house. She believed domestic work should be professionalized and even unionized. Burroughs trained her students to become respectable employees by becoming pious, pure, and domestic, but not submissive. She emphasized the importance of being proud black women to all students, by teaching African-American history and culture through a required course in the Department of Negro History.

Burroughs died in Washington D.C. on May 20, 1961. A street in the Deanwood neighborhood of the city, Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE, is named after her.

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[HBCU Presidents] Samuel Munnerlyn: Trenholm State Technical College

Leshell Hatley — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:03:57 +0000

The Alabama State Board of Education has approved the appointment of Samuel Munnerlyn as the next president of H. Councill Trenholm State Technical College.

Chancillor of Alabama’s two-year college system Bradley Byrne recommended Munnerlyn for the position after completing a presidential search process which brought in 45 applicants from across the country. Munnerlyn has served as interim president since April 2007, replacing Dr. Anthony L. Molina who died after an extended illness. Molina had served as president of Trenholm State Technical College since its merger with Patterson State Technical College in 2001.

“Sam Munnerlyn has unquestionable integrity and has demonstrated his dedication to this college. We had a pool of applicants from all over the country, but we realized that the best person for the job was right here on our own doorstep.” Byrne said.

Munnerlyn has been employed with Trenholm State Technical College since 1978. He has served in an administrative capacity since 2006, as the chief administrative officer of the college in the absence of the president. During this interim administrative period,

Munnerlyn continues to serve as the dean of students, a position he has held since 1995, coordinating college-wide student services planning and management. As the dean of students, he also provides oversight for the Educational Talent Search, Student Support Services, and Welfare-to-Work Programs.

Previously, Munnerlyn served in various student services positions associated with the development and implementation of a comprehensive retention program, coordination with state and federal agencies regarding policies and procedures, and compliance with laws and regulations relating to servicing disabled and special population students. Prior to that, he served as the Veterans Affairs program; assistant financial aid director; and as the program coordinator for a variety of college initiatives.

Munnerlyn received his master’s degree in Guidance and Counseling from Alabama State University in Montgomery, and holds a bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from Stillman College in Tuscaloosa.

Trenholm State Technical College is located in Montgomery, serving students in Bullock, Elmore, Lowndes, Macon and Montgomery counties. Trenholm Tech is part of the Alabama College System, offering technical certificate and degree programs, workforce training, and adult education.

Watch live streaming video from trenholmstatetv at livestream.com

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Dr. Sonja Ebron: Social Entrepreneur and CEO of Black Energy

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:03:31 +0000

Sonja Ebron is an electrical engineer and social entrepreneur. She is blackEnergy’s chief executive. blackEnergy is a national distributor of energy conservation products and an organizer of energy buying groups that help people use their utility bills to support Black communities.

Education

Sonja studied electrical engineering at North Carolina State University, earning bachelors and masters degrees with a focus on electric power. She earned a doctorate from the University of Florida, specializing in power system reliability.

Career

She has held academic positions with the Florida Institute of Technology, Norfolk State University and Hampton University, where she taught energy systems and other electrical engineering subjects. Her professional background has also included employment with Carolina Power & Light and Gainesville Regional Utilities, where she held positions in distribution operations, strategic planning, and customer relations.

Awards & Honors

She is a 2005 graduate of United Way’s Volunteer Improvement Program (VIP) and a United Way Community Investment Volunteer. Ms. Magazine recently labeled Sonja a change agent for “the belief that environmental and social consciousness can create satisfaction in the soul and the wallet.” She is the only utilities expert listed at SheSource.org, an online braintrust of female experts on diverse topics designed to assist journalists and producers who need female guests and sources. Sonja is the recipient of the Atlanta Business League’s 2007 Super Tuesday Award for Non-Traditional Business, and she was named a 2008 SuperWoman by the Atlanta Tribune.

See blackEnergy’s profile on Atlanta’s ABC affiliate:

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Georgiana Simpson: One of the 1st African-American Women to Obtain a PhD in America

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:30:15 +0000

Three African American women earned PhDs at American universities in 1921; they were the first African American women to do so.

Georgiana Simpson was one. We will feature the other two Thursday and Friday of this week.

Early Life

She was born in the District of Columbia near 1866, the daughter of David and Catherine Simpson. She spent all her years there with the exception of time devoted to travel and study elsewhere. She was educated in DC public schools and was trained at the Normal School, under the late Dr. Lucy E. Moten. She went on to become an elementary school teacher in 1885.

Having profited by her opportunities to study German by contact with Germans in the US, she was encouraged by Dr. Lucy Moten to study the language and literature of Germany. She spent a year and a half in that country and would have remained longer had not the serious illness of her mother called her back to the US. She later became a German instructor at the M Street High School – later to be called Dunbar High School.

Education

Georgiana Simpson’s field was German philology. She had written a Masters thesis entitled “The Phonology of Merigarto,” a study of an Early Middle High German poem. Her doctoral dissertation, written under the supervision of Martin Schütze, focused on German Romanticism and was entitled “Herder’s Conception of Das Volk.”

Simpson earned an AB at the University of Chicago in 1911, mostly with summer and correspondence courses. She began pursuing her graduate work immediately through further summer courses (1915-1919) while also teaching at Dunbar High School. After two years in full-time residence at the University of Chicago (1919-1921), Simpson earned her AM and PhD in German philology.

Simpson’s time at the University of Chicago was important not simply for its scholarly significance. Simpson also found herself both in 1907 and in 1920 and 1921 at the center of debates over where and how Negro students would be housed.

Career

Dr. Simpson was an enthusiastic advocate of the study of German culture. So much so that during the first World War the witch-hunters ignorantly charged her with being pro-German. She was investigated to determine her loyalty, but the wise-acres could find nothing in what she had said and done except to evaluate highly the culture of the German people. She had no interests in or admiration for the Kaiser and Hitler machines which brought the country ruin. Dr. Simpson showed her wisdom in upbraiding Americans for their refusal to study the German language because of the ware histeria of 1914-1919. Instead of refusing to study further the language of the enemy that was the very time to make a serious study of it, she thought.

She was a woman of Christian character. She became a member of the First Congregational Church when it was dominated by the element that participated in the establishment and development of Howard University, and there she remained a member until she died. She was a woman who lived according to Christian ideals – circumspective, temperate, and even Puritanic in her daily life. She walked the narrow path herself and often made enemies by upbraiding (to reprove/scold sharply) those in high places who did not conduct themselves accordingly. She was not swayed by fashions and fads. She came out of a Christian home and moved early among earnest teachers who helped her develop into a woman of unblemished character. She believed in a sound body in which to have a sound mind and lived as a vegetarian.

Race

She was deeply interested in race. She was a frequent visitor at the home of Frederick Douglass even when a little girl. There she learned to admire not only the Sage of Anacostia himself but formed a lifetime friendship with his second wife, Helen Pitts Douglass. For some years after the passing of the distinguished Douglass, Dr. Simpson lived in the home with the widow. This close contact led to a still greater admiration for the bereaved woman; and in an unpublished manuscript of Dr. Simpson, she pays high tribute to this woman who preserved the Douglass Home and made it possible for the women of the country to reclaim it as a national shrine.

Dr. Simpson’s interest in the Negro race was more clearly demonstrated in her teaching in the classroom. She believed that every teacher of Negroes should be a teacher of the history of the race; and, although an instructor in German and French, she had such an abundance of knowledge of her filed that she found occasion to employ her philological skills toward increased understanding of African American history and literature. It was this interest that lead to her editing and bringing out through the Associated Publishers an edition of Gragnon La Coste’s Toussaint L’Ouverture in 1924. This, her last major publication, was a critical edition and translation from the French biography of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the leader of the Haitian slave rebellion and father of free Haiti.

She joined the faculty of Howard in 1931. She served until she reached the age limit and retired in 1939. Dr. Simpson died in 1944.

===

Information obtained from The Journal of Negro History.

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William R. Moss III: Expert in Internet Marketing and Online Diversity Recruitment

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:49:02 +0000

In 1999, Will Moss founded HBCUconnect.com – one of the first social network for African Americans. To date, it’s the largest online destination for Black college students and alumni with a reach of approximately 1.2 million visitors each month.

Most recently, he has built (designed, programmed, launched) a white label social networking platform called Connect Platform (www.connectplatform.com). The service targets Black entrepreneurs, organizations, and businesses to help them create their very own revenue-generating social networks.

In partnership with Diversity City Media, his company has already launched over 15 different sites. The big ones are BlackHistory.com – an online encyclopedia and social network for Black history and culture, BlackWomenConnect.com – the first ever social network for professional Black women, BlackInAmerica.com – the first ever social network for socially-conscious African Americans, and BlackCEOs.com – a social network for Black Business owners. All of the sites are growing exponentially with thousands of active members signing up daily.

Early Life

William R. Moss III was born in Columbus, Ohio. From an early age he loved computers, going online, and learning new things. At the age of 10, Moss wrote his very first computer program in Basic for the Commodore 64 computer. The program Moss wrote allowed him to use his computer and a modem to go “online” and connect to other computer “BBS” or Bulletin Board Systems over the family phone lines. Moss was fascinated with the computer to computer communications and how easy it was to write and download software for fun.

Education

William went on to obtain a B.S. degree in Computer Science degree from Hampton University in 1995 and graduate as the top Computer Scholar in his class. He also studied towards an MBA in Marketing from Keller School of Business Management.

Career

After college Mr. Moss was recruited by AT&T/ Bell Labs to work as a lead software developer for complex network management systems. He developed software for proprietary network communications for customers such as Nippon Telephone in Japan. Wrote software in Java, C, C++, Perl and several unix scripting languages.

In 1999 he left AT&T to become a software development consultant for a small company in central Ohio. At that time, he created a website for the students and graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities called HBCUConnect.com.

HBCUConnect.com grew quickly by allowing students and graduates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to connect online. HBCUConnect.com also boasted the first complete directory of HBCUs online, inventing the HBCU sub category on Yahoo.com. The website started serving the needs of advertisers and employers looking to reach the HBCU audience in 2002, at which time the website became his major focus. Don’t forget to check out the site’s Facebook Fan Page with over 25,000 fans.

Now serving many organizations in their needs to advertise, and recruit from this growing audience of over 900,000 HBCU students, graduates and recruits Mr. Moss has taken more of a consulting role for the corporations and organizations he serves. He is considered a ‘subject matter expert’ on black colleges, their students, and graduates and how to reach them.

Moss gives presentations to college students on entrepreneurship, career preparation, and the relevancy of technology to African Americans. Moss’ experience in corporate America as an intern, employee, and consultant lead to the development of HBCU Connect as an answer to the lack of an existing platform for HBCU students and graduates to communicate, network and take advantage of related opportunities.

More information about his services can be found on the following websites:

www.HBCUconnect.com
www.LeeMossMedia.com
www.WillMoss.com

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Dr. Joy DeGruy: Researcher, Motivational Speaker, Author, Educator

Leshell Hatley — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:15:18 +0000

Dr. Joy DeGruy is a nationally and internationally renowned researcher, educator, author and presenter. Dr. Joy, as most know her, is a tell-it-like-it-is ambassador for healing and a voice for those who’ve struggled in search of the past, and continue to struggle through the present. A highly skilled and educated activist for social justice, Dr. Joy reaches people on the community level and has a captivating way of persuading others to search for a deeper understanding of themselves.

Dr. Joy is the acclaimed author of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome—America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, and the newly released, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: The Study Guide. In P.T.S.S.: The Study Guide, Dr. Joy revisits the topics she covers in P.T.S.S. and provides a detailed mapping of how you can begin the change process in your personal life, employment, family and in your community. She illustrates how—with thoughtful self–exploration—each of us can evaluate our behaviors and replace negative and damaging behaviors with those that will promote, ensure and sustain the healing and advancement of African Americans.

Education

Dr. DeGruy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications; two master degrees in Social Work and Psychology; and a PhD in Social Work Research.

Experience

With over twenty years of practical experience as a professional in the field of social work, she gives a practical insight into various cultural and ethnic groups that form the basis of contemporary American society.

Through lectures, workshops, seminars and special guest appearances, Dr. DeGruy has shined a light on the critical issues affecting society. Those who have experienced Dr. DeGruy in person, can tell you that they have been “stimulated, enlightened and inspired.” Dr. DeGruy’s seminars have been lauded as the most dynamic and inspirational currently being presented on the topics of culture, race relations and contemporary social issues. Her clients have included academic institutions such as Oxford University, Harvard University, Columbia University, Fisk University, Smith College, Morehouse College, University of Chicago, and Portland State University where she is currently an Assistant Professor. She has also presented to federal and state agencies such as The Federal Bureau of Investigation; Probation and Parole agencies; Juvenile Justice Judges Association; and Police agencies. Major corporations and companies such as Nordstrom, Nike, the NBA Rookies Camp, and the renowned G-CAPP program, all have experienced Dr. Joy’s expertise and charisma. Dr. DeGruy’s workshops go far beyond the topic of cultural sensitivity; she also provides specialized clinical work in areas of mental health and ecological resilience.

There is a conversation about her book online today on Facebook’s HBCU Connect Fan Page.

===

Information courtesy of Dr. Joy’s website

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IN MEMORIAM: Our Thoughts and Prayers for the Families, Friends, of the 3 Victims of the Horrible Univ of Alabama Shooting – 2 of the 3 were African American

Leshell Hatley — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:43:08 +0000

Our thoughts are with the families, colleagues, and friends of the three victims of the horrific shootings that took place last Friday on the campus of the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

We note that two of the three professors shot and killed at a meeting of the biology department faculty were African Americans. The 3rd was Dr. Gopi Podila.

Maria Ragland Davis was a 52-year-old associate professor of biology who specialized in plant pathology and biotechnology. She had been on the university’s faculty since 2002. Dr. Davis was a graduate of the University of Michigan. She held a master’s degree in chemical engineering and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from North Carolina State University.

Adriel D. Johnson was an associate professor of biology and had been on the faculty at the university for more than 20 years. A longtime mentor of minority students, Dr. Johnson was director of the campus chapter of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. Professor Johnson was a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. He held master’s degrees from Tennessee Technological University and the University of Alabama at Huntsville. He earned his Ph.D. at North Carolina State University.

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Dr. Frances Cress Welsing: Author of The Isis Paper

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:14:17 +0000

Frances Cress Welsing (born March 18, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois) is an African American psychiatrist practicing in Washington, D.C. She is noted for her “Cress Theory of Color Confrontation” (1970), which explores the practice of white supremacy. She is the author of The Isis Papers; The Keys to the Colors (1991).

Education

Antioch College, B.S., 1957; Howard University College of Medicine, M.D., 1962.

The Cress Theory of Color Confrontation

Cress Welsing states that this system is practiced by the global white minority, on both conscious and unconscious levels, to ensure their genetic survival by any means necessary. According to Cress Welsing, this system attacks people of color, particularly people of African descent, in the nine major areas of people’s activity: economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war. Cress Welsing believes that it is imperative that people of color, especially people of African descent, understand how the system of white supremacy works in order to dismantle it and bring true justice to planet Earth.

In The Isis Papers she postulates the pseudoscientific supremacist hypothesis that white people are the genetically defective descendants of albino mutants. (See Melanin theory.) She posits that they may have been forcibly expelled from Africa, among other possibilities. Welsing proposes that, because it is so easy for pure whiteness to be genetically lost during interracial breeding, light-skinned peoples developed an aggressive colonial urge and their societies dominated others militarily in order to preserve this light-skinned purity. Welsing ascribes certain inherent and behavioral differences between black and white people to a “melanin deficiency” in white people:

“ On both St. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, the white male gives gifts of chocolate candy with nuts…. If his sweetheart ingests “chocolate with nuts,” the white male can fantasize that he is genetically equal to the Black male…. Is it not also curious that when white males are young and vigorous, they attempt to master the large brown balls, but as they become older and wiser, they psychologically resign themselves to their inability to master the large brown balls? Their focus then shifts masochistically to hitting the tiny white golf balls in disgust and resignation — in full final realization of white genetic recessiveness. ”

Welsing also claims that the prevalence of high blood pressure among African Americans is due to the fact that melanin exchanges “black photons” with other electrons and, therefore, picks up the negative energy vibrations from white people.

Debate with Dr. William Shockley

Back in 1974, Welsing debated Dr. William Shockley, the author of a theory of black genetic inferiority, on national public television. She is responsible for generating public discussion throughout the United States about the possible effects of melanin on behavior and culture. Black authors, psychiatrists, and lecturers have written studies and books on this subject, and a series of conferences about it have been held on the East and West Coasts.

Inspiration for Rap Group Public Enemy

In the early 1990s Welsing’s theory caused a stir in the media after a publicist for the popular rap group Public Enemy sent music reviewers copies of her 1970 essay along with advance tapes of the group’s new album, Fear of a Black Planet. Their publicist, Harry Allen, said in the Washington Post that Welsing’s paper “should be seen as some of the inspiration” for the album, the title song of which deals with racial purity and miscegenation (racial mixing).

Criticism

Welsing has been criticized for promoting an overtly racist ideology. She has also been criticized for claims that black male homosexuality is consciously imposed on the black man by the white man to destroy the black family, that black homosexuality is a sign of weakness and that homosexual patterns of behavior are simply expressions of black male self-submission to other males in the area of sex, as well as in other areas such as economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, and war.

===

Information courtesy of wikipedia.

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Ivan Van Sertima: Historian, Linguist, Anthropologist, and Author

Leshell Hatley — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:32:44 +0000

Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima (26 January 1935 – 25 May 2009) was a historian, linguist and anthropologist at Rutgers University in the United States. He was noted for his Afrocentric theory of pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas. He was born in Kitty Village, Guyana, when Guyana was still a British colony. He remained a British citizen.

Education

Ivan Van Sertima completed primary and secondary school in Guyana, and started writing poetry. He attended the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London from 1959. In addition to producing an array of creative writing, Van Sertima completed his undergraduate studies in African languages and literature at SOAS in 1969, where he graduated with honors. During his studies he learned Swahili and Hungarian.

He worked for several years in Great Britain as a journalist, doing weekly broadcasts to the Caribbean and Africa. In doing field work in Africa, he compiled a dictionary of Kiswahili legal terms. In 1970 Van Sertima immigrated to the United States, where he entered Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey for graduate work.

Career

He began his teaching career at Rutgers University as an instructor in 1972. In 1977 he completed his master’s degree – he was Associate Professor of African Studies in the Department of Africana Studies. As editor of the Journal of African Civilizations and author of numerous books, he has addressed topics in literature, linguistics, anthropology and history. He wrote several books in which he argued that the Kings of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt were black Nubians.

His 1976 book, They Came Before Columbus, was a bestseller and achieved widespread fame for his claims of prehistoric African influences in Central and South America. It was criticized by academic specialists.

Other books by Ivan Van Sertima & The Journal of African Civilizations (15):

Other Writings

Van Sertima also treated the topic of African scientific contributions in his essay for the volume African Renaissance, published in 1999. This was a record of the conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 1998 on the theme of the African Renaissance. His article was entitled The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview. In it he presents early African advances in metallurgy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, engineering, agriculture, navigation, medicine and writing. He claimed that higher learning, in Africa as elsewhere, was the preserve of elites in the centres of civilizations, rendering them very vulnerable in the event (as happened in Africa) of the destruction of those centers.

On July 7, 1987 Van Sertima appeared before a United States Congressional committee in opposition to describing Christopher Columbus’s initial contact with America as a discovery.

“You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans . . . to be told they were discovered.”

Criticism

Van Sertima’s work has been criticized by academics for making ill-founded Afrocentric claims. A 1997 Journal of Current Anthropology article criticized in detail many elements of Van Sertima’s 1976 book They Came Before Columbus. The book had not earlier received a thorough professional academic review. They stated that in claiming African origins for prehistoric Olmec culture (in present-day Mexico), Van Sertima had ignored the work of Central American researchers. They stated no evidence of a prehistoric African influence or presence had been found in controlled archeological excavations in the New World. The reviewers also wrote that Olmec stone heads only superficially appear to be African and did not resemble the Nubian populations which Van Sertima claimed as their originators. They ruled as “fallacious” his claims for the diffusion of pyramid building and mummification. Additionally they accused Van Sertima’s cultural outlook of being disparaging to Native American achievements. Van Sertima wrote a response to be included in the article (as is standard practice) but withdrew it because of the journal’s policy that reprints must include the entire article and would have had to include a response (written but not published) to his response. Instead Van Sertima replied to his critics in another publication.

In a New York Times 1977 review of Van Sertima’s works, British scholar Glyn Daniel labelled Van Sertima’s work as “ignorant rubbish”, concluding that the writings of Van Sertima (and Barry Fell, whom he was also reviewing) “give us badly argued theories based on fantasies”. Dean R. Snow, a professor of anthropology, in 1981 wrote that Van Sertima “uses the now familiar technique of stringing together bits of carefully selected evidence, each surgically removed from the context that would give it a rational explanation”. Snow continued, “The findings of professional archaeologists and physical anthropologists are misrepresented so that they seem to support the [Van Sertima] hypothesis.”

In response to Glyn Daniels’ review, Dr. Clarence Weiant, who worked in Mexican archeology for the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution, and who participated in the excavation of the first giant heads in Mexico, wrote to the N.Y. Times that Dr. Ivan Van Sertima’s work represents six or seven years of meticulous research based upon archeology, egyptology, African history, oceanography, astronomy, botany, rare Arabic and Chinese manuscripts, the letters and journals of early American explorers and the observations of physical anthropologists. Dr. Weiant said that he’s convinced of the soundness of Van Sertima’s conclusions.In 1998 Dr Van Sertima countered Journal of Current Anthropology criticisms [although a reference to this cannot be found].

Family

Van Sertima retired in 2006. He died on 25 May 2009 aged 74. He was survived by his wife and four adult children.

His widow, Jacqueline, said she will continue to publish the Journal of African Civilization and plans to publish a book of his poetry.

===

Information courtesy of wikipedia.

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[Update] NBA (Atlanta Hawks) honors Dr. Andrew Williams and the Spelbots

Leshell Hatley — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:06:00 +0000
We've featured Dr. Andrew Williams on June 23, 2009 and Jonecia Keels, one of the Spelbots, on August 23, 2009 (both from Spelman College). However, recently, we learned that the Atlanta Hawks paid tribute to them as Trailblazers during Black History Month. Read more.. Related posts:

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[Update] Marvin Lynn: Examining How Teachers Feel about African-American Male Students

Leshell Hatley — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:48:12 +0000

We featured Dr. Marvin Lynn on August 21, 2008. But we wanted to provide you with an update as he is now featured on the website of the Teachers College Record talking about an 18 month study he did examining how teachers’ beliefs about African-American male students in a low-performing high school.

Take a look at him briefly describing their findings:

Read more about the study here.

What’s your immediate reaction to the results of this study?

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Keith L. Black, MD – Chairman and Professor, Department of Neurosurgery Director, Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:58:11 +0000

Keith L. Black, MD serves as Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery and Director of the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He also holds the title of (Full) Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery. An internationally renowned neurosurgeon and scientist, Dr. Black joined Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in July 1997 and was awarded the Ruth and Lawrence Harvey Chair in Neuroscience in November of that year.

Career

Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Black served on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) faculty for 10 years where he was a (Full) Professor of Neurosurgery. In 1992 he was awarded the Ruth and Raymond Stotter Chair in the Department of Surgery and was Head of the UCLA Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program.

Pioneering Research

Dr. Black pioneered research on designing ways to open the blood-brain barrier, enabling chemotherapeutic drugs to be delivered directly into the tumor. His work in this field received the Jacob Javits award from the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council of the National Institutes of Health in June 2000. Dr. Black, along with patients undergoing the first clinical trials of the drug RMP-7, was profiled in 1996 on the PBS program, The New Explorers, in an episode called “Outsmarting the Brain”. Below is a clipped from BET.com posted just a few days ago:

Dr. Black’s other groundbreaking research has focused on developing a vaccine to enhance the body’s immune response to brain tumors, use of gene arrays to develop molecular profiles of tumors, the use of optical technology for brain mapping, and the use of focused microwave energy to noninvasively destroy brain tumors. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine in the Fall 1997 special edition “Heroes of Medicine”.

Dr. Black serves on the editorial boards of the Neurological Research, Gene Therapy and Molecular Biology, Neurosurgery Quarterly and Frontiers In Bioscience. He was on the National Institutes of Health’s Board of Scientific Counselors for Neurological Disorders and Stroke and was appointed to the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council of the National Institutes of Health from 2000 to 2004. He was also selected as a committee member of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Independent Citizens Oversight Committee from 2004-2006. He is also a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Neurosurgical Society of America and the Academy of Neurological Surgery. He also is a Founding Member of the North American Skull Base Society.
Dr. Black has a unique ability to combine cutting-edge research and an extremely busy surgical practice. Since 1987, he has performed more than 5,000 operations for resection of brain tumors.

In 2009 Black published his autobiography, co-authored with Arnold Mann, entitled Brain Surgeon. New York Times reviewer Abigail Zuger described the book as a “fascinating, if somewhat stilted, memoir”.The Publishers Weekly review commented that the book

“examines racial hurdles he had to leap to become a neurosurgeon” and “alternat[es] incisive writing about incisions with his personal memoir, insightful and inspirational.”

Early Life and Education

Keith Black was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. His mother was a teacher and his father was the principal at a racially segregated elementary school in Auburn, Alabama; unable to integrate the student body, Black’s father instead integrated the faculty, raised standards, and brought more challenging subjects to the school. Unwilling to send their son to the substandard segregated high school in Auburn, Black’s parents found new jobs and relocated the family to Shaker Heights, Ohio. Black attended Shaker Heights High School. Already interested in medicine, Black was admitted to an apprenticeship program for minority students at Case Western Reserve University, and then became a teenaged lab assistant for Frederick Cross and Richard Jones (inventors of the Cross-Jones artificial heart valve) at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cleveland. At 17, he won an award in a national science competition for research on the damage done to red blood cells in patients with heart-valve replacements. It was during this time that he published his first scientific paper, which earned a Westinghouse Science Award. He completed an accelerated college program at the University of Michigan and earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees in six years. He completed his internship in general surgery and residency in neurological surgery at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.

To learn more about Dr. Black, please view his CV here.

For an appointment, a second opinion or more information, please call 1-800-CEDARS-1 (1-800-233-2771) or e-mail the center.

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Barry C. Black: Chaplain of the United States Senate – From the Hood to the Hill

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:03:57 +0000

Barry C. Black is the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate. He was elected to this position on June 27, 2003, becoming the first African-American, the first Seventh-day Adventist, and the first military chaplain to hold the office of chaplain to the United States Senate. He ministers to a flock of 6,000, comprising senators, spouses, Chiefs of Staff, and Capitol Hill employees. Black is advisor to the most powerful people in the United States government on moral, spiritual, and ethical issues that affect the lives of millions in the United Sates and abroad. (The Senate elected its first chaplain in 1789.)

Early Life

Chaplain Barry C. Black was born on November 1, 1948, in the inner city of Baltimore, Maryland, to Pearline and Lester Black.

“My mother was a beautiful person who connected with all her children and made each of us feel special,” Chaplain Black said in an interview with Contemporary Black Biography (CBB). “She was a storyteller with the ability to find allies and build networks, and she was athletic. I inherited these skills from my mother.”

Sensing his destiny, Pearline told her son, “You will have a special destination in life and a life with God.” This she believed because when she was baptized and pregnant with the chaplain she had asked God to do something special with his life.

Pearline taught her eight children the importance of God and education as the way to a better life without poverty. Raising a large family alone, Pearline, a Seventh-day Adventist, found church to be the supportive environment she needed to accomplish this. At Berea Temple and its Baltimore Junior Academy her children found a thriving community of helping hands, a quality education, and much needed tuition assistance. Black’s mother found friends like Albertha Brown, who shared her home with young Barry after school, providing him a haven from the mean streets of Baltimore.

During church services Black heard the best preachers in the community and began to develop his language skills. “Mother supplemented this by giving us a nickel for scriptures we memorized. She had to put me on a flat rate; I was breaking the bank,” Black remembered. At school young Barry would study the prose of Longfellow, Emerson, Milton, and Thoreau.

“I entered poetry readings and oratorical contests. I had a love for the music of language,” explained Black.

Hearing his oratory skills, the congregation and school provided affirmation that oratory was also his gift.

Heeded His Calling

Black felt from an early age that he wanted to be a minister and knew he had a “special feeling for God,” but he resisted. “I wanted to pursue God, but most ministers in the inner city seemed poor. In my junior year of college I decided to go with the desire of my heart and pursue the ministry even if it meant poverty.”

He is the author of From the Hood to the Hill:

Education

First Black received his bachelor of theology degree in 1970, from Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. He entered Andrews Theological Seminary at Berrien Springs, Michigan, earning a master of divinity degree in 1973. There he enjoyed the focus on theology. Next Black moved to Durham, North Carolina, to pastor seven churches in South Carolina and North Carolina. Preaching two or three times each week allowed Black to learn quickly; within two years he was sent to pastor three other churches in North Carolina.

By this time Black had married Brenda Pearsall, who he met during his junior year at Oakwood College, and he began work on a master’s degree in counseling, completing it in 1978. Brenda was an English major; her skills would become a valuable asset as Black developed his language skills. In 1982 Black completed a doctorate in theology, and received a master’s degree in management in 1989. In 1996 he was awarded a doctorate in psychology.

One day in North Carolina, while speaking with three young servicemen from Norfolk, Virginia, Black wondered why they did not worship back on base. When asked, they said they had never heard of a black Navy Chaplain.

“It planted a seed,” says Black. The Navy needed African-American chaplains, and Black wanted to work with young people. “Also I didn’t want to minister to just people from my own race,” he told CBB. “I wanted a broader challenge.”

Found His Place and Mission

Black was just 25 years old and, citing his young age, church leaders would not grant Black approval to minister to the young people of his church. Subsequently he did find what he was searching for with the United States Navy in 1976. At the time his church was seeking individuals interested in providing ministry in the military, so Black joined the Navy. Intending initially to stay three years, Black knew after his first day he had found his niche.

“The variety of denominations, the improved salary, the appreciation on the part of a diverse group of people for my particular talents and gifts, the additional challenge of being physically fit, the joy of working with young people, all those factors I recognized very quickly and thought this is too good to be true. The experience was a protracted honeymoon for 27 years that went by very quickly,” said Black.

Appointed to Top Posts

Black held several posts during his 27-year career in the Navy, eventually becoming Deputy Chief of Chaplains in 1997, and in 2000 he became Chief of Navy Chaplains. As chief he held responsibility for the spiritual care of servicemen from 190 religious traditions. He advised and provided ministry to the Chief of Naval Operations, the Secretaries of the Navy and Defense, and the Commandants of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

He officially retired from the Navy on August 15, 2003.

Read more:
Barry C. Black Biography

US Senate Page

www.admiralblack.com (personal website)

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Stephen Stafford II: Morehouse's 13 Year Old Scholar

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:02:12 +0000

As a 13-year-old, Lithonia resident Stephen Stafford II can usually be found sitting in front of the television playing video games or playing his drum set. But Stafford is no typical 13-year old – he’s a college student. The triple-major child prodigy is becoming a sensation at Morehouse College.

“I’ve never taught a student as young as Stephen, and it’s been amazing,” said computer science professor Sonya Dennis. “He’s motivating other students to do better and makes them want to step up their game.”

“When I saw how much knowledge Stephen has at such a young age, I wondered what I had been doing with my life,” laughed third-year student, Eric Crawford. A psychology major and computer science minor, Crawford wanted to step up his game so much that he got Stephen to tutor him. “Even though I’m older, Stephen is like a mentor and my elder in computer science,” said Crawford.

“Eric’s a really fun person to be around, and we have a good time together,” said Stafford.

Crawford added, “Stephen has a lot of patience with me. I got a 95 in the class because of Stephen.”

Even at age 11 when Stafford started at Morehouse, he got the highest score in his pre-calculus class. “He breezes through whatever I throw at him. If it’s an hour lab, he can do it in 20 or 30 minutes,” said Dennis.

Stafford said he isn’t nervous about studying with students much older than himself. “I just do what I always did. I show up, I do the work, and I go home,” he said.

When talking to Stafford, it’s easy to forget his age. But his age shows when he’s playing video games or even at dinner, where he eats while also trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube. Still, Stafford finds it hard to relate to teens his age. “I relate better to Eric…most kids my age don’t know when to stop playing around and when to be serious,” he said.

Stafford’s mother, Michelle Brown-Stafford, home-schooled both her children (Stephen has an older sister also in college) and believes that parental involvement is essential for students to excel. But when she realized her son was starting to teach her instead of being taught, she knew he needed to be in a college environment.

“It was surreal because on one hand he’s talking about technical things I didn’t even understand, and on the other hand he was asking me to come watch Sponge Bob with him. So it was bittersweet to let him go.”

Brown-Stafford wondered if there were other parents who shared her experiences with a gifted child, so she helped found a support group: www.gifted-spirit.com.

And the Morehouse family has become a support group for Stafford, personifying the African proverb about it taking a village to raise a child. Stafford is too young to stay on campus, so his mother picks him up and drops him off each day. The students protect him and make a point not to curse or discuss certain mature issues around him, according to his mother and Stafford. Even the staff of Jazzman’s Café, where Stafford tutors Crawford, helps nurture Stephen into becoming a “Morehouse Renaissance Man”–well-spoken, well-dressed, well-read, well-traveled, and well-balanced. The cafe’s general Manager, Darren Page, added an unofficial principle: well-fed. “A Morehouse Man cannot study on an empty stomach,” said Page. So whenever Stafford comes to Jazzman’s, Page gives up his own employee meal for the 13-year-old.

It seems that everyone wants to be a part of helping Stafford graduate in 2012, and go on to Morehouse School of Medicine. And because of a Georgia law that requires a student to be 16 to graduate high school, he’ll be getting his high school diploma the same year he receives his college degrees in math, computer science and pre-med.

“Kids will live up to your expectations. But I ultimately want Stephen to be happy,” said Stephen Stafford Sr. Brown-Stafford added, “I want him to be well-rounded and still connect with kids his own age, so we put him in DeKalb County’s 4-H Club and other programs.” She added that she’s thankful to the Morehouse family for embracing her son.

“I want to see what Stephen becomes 10 years from now,” said Crawford. Page added, “I want to be at his graduation. And then I want to walk by and touch the [campus] statue of Dr. Martin Luther King and recognize I had a role in [Stephen] walking in Martin Luther King’s footsteps.” And how fitting, since Dr. King entered Morehouse at age 15.

So to put a spin on Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Stephen is being judged by the content of his character, not by his age.

===

Courtesy of Champion Newspaper, Dekalb County, Ga

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Taylor Yarborough: Freshman Spelman Student & Tavis Smiley Foundation Honoree

Leshell Hatley — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:53:38 +0000

Taylor Yarborough, a freshman, pre-med/biology major at Spelman, was among 100 young adults honored recently by the Tavis Smiley Foundation for being an example of positive youth engagement, volunteerism, community service and leadership. The New Orleans native was presented with a $5,000 scholarship at the Foundation’s annual Salute to Youth Leadership Benefit and Auction in Los Angeles, CA.

Taylor is also currently serving a three year term as a member of the Tavis Smiley Foundation’s National Youth Advisory Council, and has received several scholarships including, but not limited to, the UNCF/NAACP Agness Jones scholarship and the NextGen Scholarship.

A talented writer and Spelman Glee Club member, Taylor graduated with honors from Lusher Charter School in New Orleans, where she also received a certificate of artistry in creative writing. She is a contributing poet for the Guernica Online Magazine of Art and Politics, and contributing author for Hope, Change and Obama (NLS Publishing).

The daughter of Courtney Nelson and Gason Nelson, a personal chef for New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush, Taylor is considering a career in sports medicine, and is currently a trainer for the Morehouse College football team.

Read more about Taylor and the Tavis Smiley Foundation

Tavis Smiley Foundation’s Youth to Leader (2008)

Information obtained from Spelman’s website.

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Khadijah Williams: From Homeless to Harvard

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:18:51 +0000

Khadijah Williams was in third grade when she first realized the power of test scores, placing in the 99th percentile on a state exam. Her teachers marked the 9-year-old as gifted, a special category that Khadijah, even at that early age, vowed to keep.

“I still remember that exact number,” Khadijah said. “It meant only 0.01 students tested better than I did.”

In the years that followed, her mother, Chantwuan Williams, pulled her out of school eight times. When shelters closed, money ran out or her mother didn’t feel safe, they packed what little they carried and boarded buses to find housing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Ventura, San Diego, San Bernardino and Orange County, staying for months, at most, in one place.

“I have felt the anger at having to catch up in school . . . being bullied because they knew I was poor, different, and read too much,” she wrote in her college essays. “I knew that if I wanted to become a smart, successful scholar, I should talk to other smart people.”

She finished only half of fourth grade, half of fifth and skipped sixth. Seventh grade was split between Los Angeles and San Diego. Eighth grade consisted of two weeks in San Bernardino.

At every stop, Khadijah pushed to keep herself in each school’s gifted program. She read nutrition charts, newspapers and four to five books a month, anything to transport her mind away from the chaos and the sour smell.

At school, she was the outsider. At the shelter, she was often bullied. “You ain’t college-bound,” the pimps barked. “You live in skid row!”

Khadijah Williams - Graduation

In 10th grade, Khadijah realized that if she wanted to succeed, she couldn’t do it alone. She began to reach out to organizations and mentors: the Upward Bound Program, Higher Edge L.A., Experience Berkeley and South Central Scholars; teachers, counselors and college alumni networks. They helped her enroll in summer community college classes, gave her access to computers and scholarship applications and taught her about networking.

When she enrolled in the fall of her junior year at Jefferson High School, she was determined to stay put, regardless of where her mother moved. Graduation was not far off and she needed strong college letters of recommendation from teachers who were familiar with her work.

This soon meant commuting by bus from an Orange County armory. She awoke at 4 a.m. and returned at 11 p.m., and kept her grade-point average at just below a 4.0 while participating in the Academic Decathlon, the debate team and leading the school’s track and field team.

“That’s when I was really stressed,” she says, at once sighing and laughing.

Khadijah graduated Friday evening with high honors, fourth in her class. She was accepted to more than 20 universities nationwide, including Brown, Columbia, Amherst and Williams. She chose a full scholarship to Harvard and aspires to become an education attorney.

Early adversity

She tried her best; she never smoked or drank, never did drugs, and she never put us in abusive situations. However, that was the best she could do.

There are questions about her mother Khadijah is not ready to ask, answers she is not ready to hear. How did her mother end up on the streets? How come she never found a stable home for her daughters? Why wasn’t there family to turn to, no father, no grandparents? And what will become of her little sister?

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” is often her response. Ask personal questions about her mother and the fire in Khadijah’s eyes turns dim. She knows when she arrives in Cambridge, Mass., she will need to seek counseling. So much of her life is a blur.

She knows she was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a 14-year-old mother. She thinks Chantwuan might have been ostracized from her family. She may have tried to attend school, but the stress of a baby proved too much. When Khadijah was a toddler, they moved to California. A few years later, Jeanine was born.

She has chosen not to criticize her mother. Instead Khadijah said she inspired her to learn. “She would tell me I had a gift, she would call me Oprah.”

When her college applications were due in December, James and Patricia London of South Central Scholars invited Khadijah to their home in Rancho Palos Verdes to help her write her essays.

When they went to return her to skid row, her mother and sister were gone.

Khadijah accepted the Londons’ invitation to spend the rest of her school year with them.

In their comfortable hilltop home, Khadijah learned a new set of lessons. The orthopedic doctor and nurse taught her table manners, money management and grooming.

She won’t be the first homeless student to arrive at Harvard.

Julie Hilden, the Harvard interviewer who met with Khadijah to gauge whether she should be accepted, said it was clear from the start that Khadijah was a top candidate. But school officials had to make sure they could provide what she needed to make the transition successful.

They plan to connect her with faculty mentors and potentially, a host family to check in with every so often. She will also attend a Harvard summer program at Cornell to take college-prep courses.

“I strongly recommended her,” Hilden said. “I told them, ‘If you don’t take her, you might be missing out on the next Michelle Obama. Don’t make this mistake.’ ”

Seeking connections

“I think about how I can convince my peers about the value of education. . . . I have found that after all the teasing, these peers start to respect me . . . . I decided that I could be the one to uplift my peers . . . . My work is far reaching and never finished.”

Khadijah expected to feel more connected after nearly two years at Jefferson, to make at least one good friend.

Students flock to the smart girl for help with homework and tests and class questions. She walks through campus tenderly waving and smiling and complimenting everyone she knows.

But when prom pictures arrive, they show her posing alone in a silky black and white dress. In her yearbook, hundreds of familiar faces look back, but the memories are missing.

“It’s a nice, glossy, shiny, colorful yearbook,” she said. “But it feels like they’re all strangers. I’m nowhere in these pages.”

In the last six months, she saw her mother only a few times and on Thursday tried to find her. Khadijah headed to a South-Central storage facility where they last stored their belongings.

She found Chantwuan sitting on a garbage bag full of clothes.

“Khadijah’s here!” her sister Jeanine yells. Chantwuan’s face lit up.

She explained the details of her graduation, the bus route to get there and gave her mother a prom picture. She said she would leave for summer school Friday.

There is no talk of coming home of for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Proudly, Khadijah modeled her hunter green graduation cap and gown and practiced switching the tassel from right to left as she would during the ceremony.

“Look at you,” her mother says. “You’re really going to Harvard, huh?”

“Yeah,” she says, pausing. “I’m going to Harvard.”

For more information visit, http://www.khadijahwilliams.com.

Obtained from LA Times. Recommended by BSI FB Fan Page Member Isaiah Imani.

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You & All The Black Scholars in Your Life!

Leshell Hatley — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:44:36 +0000

The BSI Staff has reflected about a great many issues over the past 3 months of our existence in this current form. We realized that we have celebrated the lives of two young Black Scholars whose lives have been taken from them (Derrion Albert & Jasmin Lynn) , we’ve thematically shined light on some amazing Black Scholars in academia, and we’ve probably been the first online entity to celebrate the Presidents of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the US. We’ve done a great deal!

However, we realize that none of it would have meant much without the readers who check-in every day, who have used our content as summer enrichment and class discussions, and those who have shared comments of appreciation.

So today, we’d like to show appreciation for You & the Black Scholars in Your Life! For without them, the content of this website would not be as important to you as it has been expressed. As part of this appreciation, we’ve decided to add more content aspects such as tips for young students (Black Scholars in the making), job announcements, etc. So, please continue to check-in daily, share you comments, and look forward to more great content as we move into the next quarter of The Black Scholars Index!

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Derrion Albert: A Great Scholar in the Making

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:08:39 +0000
While most news stories explain the tragic death of Derrion Albert, The Black Scholars Index celebrates his life and his status as an honor roll student at Christian Fenger Academy High School on Chicago’s South Side. We send our prayers to his family and friends and will remember him as a Great Scholar in the Making!... Read more.. Related posts:

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William Kamkwamba: Harnessed the Wind at Age 14

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:35:01 +0000

William Kamkwamba, from Malawi, is a born inventor. When he was 14, he built an electricity-producing windmill from spare parts and scrap, working from rough plans he found in a library book called Using Energy and modifying them to fit his needs. The windmill he built powers four lights and two radios in his family home.

How Ted.com learned about William Kamkwamba

After reading about Kamkwamba on Mike McKay’s blog Hactivate (which picked up the story from a local Malawi newspaper), TEDGlobal Conference Director Emeka Okafor spent several weeks tracking him down at his home in Masitala Village, Wimbe, and invited him to attend TEDGlobal on a fellowship. Onstage, Kamkwamba talked about his invention and shared his dreams: to build a larger windmill to help with irrigation for his entire village, and to go back to school.

How TEDGlobal responded

Following Kamkwamba’s moving talk, there was an outpouring of support for him and his promising work. Members of the TED community got together to help him improve his power system (by incorporating solar energy), and further his education through school and mentorships. Subsequent projects have included clean water, malaria prevention, solar power and lighting for the six homes in his family compound; a deep-water well with a solar-powered pump for clean water; and a drip irrigation system. Kamkwamba himself returned to school, and is now attending the African Leadership Academy, a new pan-African prep school outside Johannesburg, South Africa.

Kamkwamba’s story is documented in his autobiography, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope. A short documentary about Kamkwamba, called Moving Windmills (featured below), won several awards last year; Kamkwamba and friends are now working on a full-length film. You can read the ongoing details on his blog (which he keeps with help from his mentor), and support his work and other young inventors at MovingWindmills.org.

-From Ted.com

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Dr. Robert Bell, Team Win Netflix $1Million Challenge

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:54:04 +0000

Dr. Robert Bell is an African-American statistician – a demographic that has low statistical numbers in and of itself. How many African-American statisticians do you know? Probably not many. And how many do you know have won $1 million challenges? Well, we know of at least one!

Dr. Robert Bell earned a BS in Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College (1972) and a Masters in Statistics, University of Chicago (1973), and a PhD in Statistics, Stanford University (1980). Dr. Robert Bell has been a member of the Statistics Research Department at AT&T Labs-Research since 1998. He previously worked at RAND doing public policy analysis. His current research interests include machine learning methods, analysis of data from complex samples, and record linkage methods. He has served on several National Research Council panels advising the Census Bureau and chairs a current panel on coverage measurement for the 2010 census. He is a member of the board of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences and a fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Dr. Robert Bell is also member of the winning team, BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos, that won Netflix’s $1Million Challenge. The seven-person team is made up of statisticians, machine-learning experts and computer engineers from the United States, Austria, Canada and Israel. View the team’s website, a record of their progress on the road to becoming winners.

Netflix $1Million Challenge Winners

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Ty Hobson-Powell: Howard's 14 year old Sophmore

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:07:34 +0000

Ty Hobson-Powell

As the school year gets under way at Howard University, one of the new faces on campus already has done enough work to rise to sophomore standing. And he’s only 14 years old.

“To me it’s just normal, you know,” Ty Hobson-Powell said. “I’m just in a different environment. Couple of older kids, but it‘s nothing different.”

The D.C. teen is Howard’s youngest student, having completed his high school requirements in just two years. His Howard classmates are shocked by his age and accomplishments, but many said they admire that and respect Ty for it.
He’s living among them in a campus dorm so he doesn’t miss out on too much of the college experience before he moves on to his career dreams.

“I wouldn’t knock down the offer to be president, like Barack Obama,” he said.

A political science major, Ty rose to sophomore standing with the help of community college classes and online courses. He plans to spend no more time as an undergrad than he did as a high school student.

“Well, I hope to go into kind of like an incorporation of law and medicine, because I want to go to medical school and law school,” he said.

His parents knew he was gifted at a very young age.

“Before he even had teeth in his mouth, he was actually talking,” said his father, who teaches pediatric medicine at Howard.

As a 3-year-old, Ty began to learn Chinese, giving him a leg up on his classmates — and pretty much the vast majority of the rest of us — when he started the first grade at 4 years old.

“I’m extremely proud of Ty, and I just thank God,” his mother said. “I think we’re really blessed.”

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Your Testimonials Needed Below!

Leshell Hatley — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:44:23 +0000
Your testimonies needed below! The Black Scholars Index, powered by Uplift, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit organization, will soon begin a campaign to raise money to continue its maintenance and expansion. With this in mind, we created this page for you to add testimonials to be reviewed by potential funders. So, please feel free to share your thoughts, comments, and suggestions for The Black Scholars Index... Read more.. Related posts:

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BSI mourns Jasmin Lynn, Spelman Student who died this morning

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:58:19 +0000

Jasmin Lynn

The Black Scholars Index mourns the death of Jasmin Lynn, a Spelman University student who was killed earlier this morning by a stray bullet. Below is a message for Spelman’s President….

“I am very sorry to inform you of the death of a Spelman student, Jasmine Lynn C’2012.Words cannot express the sadness I feel about the tragic loss of Jasmine’s life, the result of senseless violence. Jasmine was an innocent bystander struck by gunfire early this morning in the vicinity of the CAU Commons. On behalf of the entire Spelman College community, I want to express our deepest sympathy to Jasmine’s family and friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time of grief. The Spelman College flag will be flown at half-mast today in Jasmine’s honor. We will share information regarding funeral services as soon as it is available.”

With deep sorrow,
Beverly Daniel Tatum
http://speakupspelman.blogspot.com/2009/09/spelman-college-mourns-death-of.html

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Jonecia Keels: Computer Science Junior @ Spelman, One to watch!

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:54:48 +0000

Keels with the inspiration for her iPhone App

SpelBots co-captain Jonecia Keels, C’2011 at Spelman College, dreams of starting a computer software company that creates revolutionary applications for mobile and computing platforms. The dual-degree engineering major is well on her way to making that dream come true.

Keels has created the hugely popular iPhone app, iDex, for gamers of the Pokemon game franchise. According to Keels, iDex gets downloaded 1,500 times a day worldwide. Since its release, the Pokemon app remains on the Top 25 list of more than 2,600 apps in the reference category. One of 25 students chosen to participate in the Cocoa Camp at Apple to create iPhone apps, Keels is currently working on her second iPhone app while creating updates to iDex. “What started as a fun little side project for me turned into this ridiculously successful worldwide application,” she said. “The best part is receiving emails from people around the world who appreciate my creation.”

Left to right: Jonecia, Dr. Andrew Williams, Jazmin, Mimi, Tajiana

The Spelbots, the undergraduate Robotics Team at Spelman University lead by Dr. Andrew Williams (now chair of the Computer Science Department), won many awards and competitions over the last several years. They are the first all-women and African American undergraduate team to compete in the International RoboCup Four-Legged Soccer Competition in Osaka, Japan (2005) and Bremen, Germany (2006). The won 2nd place in 2007 and tied for 1st in 2009.
Watch recaps of these last two competitions below:

2009: 1st Place Tie

2007: 2nd Place ‘Passing Challenge’

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HBCUs: A Historical & Statistical Perspective

Leshell Hatley — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:00:43 +0000

Today, we have decided to feature HBCUs from a slightly different perspective than our usual Tuesday feature on HBCU Presidents. In the spirit of political transparency, we thought it would be great to simple share with you the historical formation of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges & Universities along with a few statistical facts about HBCUs and their impact on society in this country and abroad.

DID YOU KNOW?
The 2009 National HBCU Week Conference will be August 30 – September 2, 2009 at the Renaissance Hotel, Washington, D.C. Visit the website to register and get more information.

If the government is doing something to support HBCUs, then we all definitely should!

Howard University (facing Founders Library)

White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities:

Mission

To strengthen the capacity of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to provide excellence in education.

A Brief History

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Executive Order 12232, which established a federal program “… to overcome the effects of discriminatory treatment and to strengthen and expand the capacity of historically black colleges and universities to provide quality education.”

In 1981, President Reagan, under Executive Order 12320, established the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which expanded the previous program and set into motion a government-wide effort to strengthen our nation’s HBCUs.

In 1989, President George Bush signed Executive Order 12677. This Executive Order established a Presidential Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to advise the President and the Secretary of Education on methods, programs, and strategies to strengthen these valued institutions.

In 1993, President William Jefferson Clinton signed Executive Order 12876. This Executive Order required that a senior level executive in each agency have oversight in implementing the Order; and that the Office of Management and Budget be involved in monitoring implementation of the Order.

On February 12, 2002, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13256. This Executive Order transferred the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to the Office of the Secretary within the U.S. Department of Education.

(Read the current Executive Order)

HBCUs are a source of accomplishment and great pride for the African American community as well as the entire nation. The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, defines an HBCU as: “…any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary [of Education] to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation.” HBCUs offer all students, regardless of race, an opportunity to develop their skills and talents. These institutions train young people who go on to serve domestically and internationally in the professions as entrepreneurs and in the public and private sectors.

HBCUs: Brief Statistics and Impact
The nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) hold a 130-year record of significantly increasing the percentage of black Americans who are able to attend college, effectively creating cohorts of black leadership, and helping achieve economic mobilization of African-American communities. HBCUs play the critical role of awarding more than 19 percent of bachelor’s degrees earned by African-Americans; graduating 40 percent or more of all African-Americans who receive degrees in physics, chemistry, astronomy, environmental sciences, mathematics and biology; and producing nearly 50 percent of the African-American public school teaching force. Many HBCUs specialize in teaching students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Ensuring their continued success will play an important part in reaching the president’s goal of becoming first in the world in college completion.

HBCUs cannot simply survive. They have to thrive. The historical importance of these schools cannot be overstated. Their relevance today is as great as at any time in the past.

—Secretary of Education
Arne Duncan

HBCUs from 1976 -2001:
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and other nations. In September 2004, NCES released the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 1976 to 2001, a report that presents a quarter-century of Historically Black Colleges and Universities trends. The report contains summary information for HBCUs on enrollment, degrees, staff, salaries, and finances, with comparisons to other colleges and universities. In addition, the report contains detailed information on individual HBCUs, with trends in enrollment, and detailed data on degrees, staff, and finances for recent years. To obtain a copy of the report please see the link: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004062

National Science Foundation Report

The National Science Foundation issued a report in 2008 entitled the Role of HBCUs as Baccalaureate-Origin Institutions of Black S&E Doctorate Recipients. This report can be reviewed here.

Figure from NSF Report

INSIDE HIGHER ED Article
Take a look at Inside Higher Ed’s article entitled Who Produces Black Ph.Ds?

HBCU Live
Watch all four segments of ‘HBCU Live’ on YouTube. A very interesting dialogue about HBCUs and their relevance today:

For more information and additional resources regarding HBCUs and this Initiative, please visit http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/list/whhbcu/edlite-index.html

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[ Academic_Resource ] The PhD Project

Leshell Hatley — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:41:26 +0000

For Minority Doctoral Students

The PhD Project (http://www.phdproject.org) was established by The KPMG Foundation in 1994, following the termination of the Minority Summer Institute (MSI) run by GMAC and AACSB. MSI encouraged minorities at the undergraduate level to look at a career in academia, but did not meet intended expectations. With an investment of just $5,000 each, Bernie Milano, then head of recruiting at KPMG, and Peter Thorp of Citigroup, led a process to shift the model and focus on minorities at the graduate level instead. The PhD Project was launched with additional support from GMAC and AACSB…it worked, and continues to achieve great success!

In 2005, The PhD Project once a program of the KPMG Foundation, became a separate 501(c)(3) with the KPMG Foundation remaining as the primary funder and administrator. The Project receives additional funding from many other prominent corporations In addition, we receive significant funding from the academic community including over 200 doctoral and non doctoral granting institutions. The Project has celebrated many milestones over these past 15 years — doubling and then tripling the number of minority business professors in the U.S. and we look forward to capping our 1,000th professor soon!

VISION

A significantly larger pool of highly qualified African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Native Americans for positions in management.

MISSION

The PhD Project’s mission is to increase the diversity of corporate America by increasing the diversity of business school faculty. We attract African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Native Americans to business Ph.D. programs, and provide a network of peer support on their journey to becoming professors. As faculty, they serve as role models attracting and mentoring minority students while improving the preparation of all students for our diverse workplace and society.

OBJECTIVES

To inform and educate minorities about all aspects of a business doctoral program, and encourage them to follow their dream of becoming a professor;

To provide a nurturing support network for minorities as they navigate their doctoral program;

To increase the number of minority business professors who can function as role models and mentors;

To influence more minorities to pursue business degrees/careers;

To increase the number of qualified minority applicants to fill critical positions in the business disciplines;

To improve the preparation of all students by allowing them to experience the richness of learning from a faculty with diverse backgrounds; and

To reach the goal of a better prepared and more diversified workforce to service a diversified customer base.

Currently, The PhD Project has 400 minority doctoral student members pursuing their dream. Like you, they were professionals or recent grads satisfying their quest for a high level of achievement and answering the call to mentor. With an expansive network of support, The PhD Project is now helping them prepare for success in academia.

Whether you become involved as a doctoral student, professor, participating university, or supporting organization…just become involved. Learn more by visiting the links on the left.

Participation in The PhD Project is available to anyone of African-American, Hispanic American and Native American descent who is interested in business doctoral studies.

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[ PostDoc_Student ] Dr. Thurman Bridges

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:31:19 +0000

Dr. Thurman Bridges - Postdoc at Columbia

Thurman Bridges is a teacher, scholar and educator whose focus is on teacher beliefs, including the ontologies, epistemologies, and pedagogies [beliefs and ways of teaching] of African-American male educators. His dissertation, Peace, Love, Unity and Having Fun: Storying the Life Histories and Pedagogical Beliefs of African-American Male Teachers from the Hip Hop Generation, examined the cultural contexts in which his participants’ experiences with Hip Hop culture, their motivations to teach, and their pedagogical approaches emerged.

Dr. Bridges earned his Doctorate of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland, College Park where he was awarded the Promising Researching Fellowship by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and honored as a Distinguished Teaching Assistant by the Graduate School and the Center for Teaching Excellence. He also holds both a Bachelors of Arts and a Masters degree in Teaching from the University of Virginia.

Prior to enrolling in graduate school, he was a middle school social studies teacher in Richmond, Virginia, where he was honored with the First Year Teaching Award.

Dr. Bridges is returning to the classroom this fall as a post-doctoral fellow with the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Columbia University. His research will focus on the life histories and identity development of African American male teachers from the Hip Hop Generation.

Thurman has appeared as speaker and moderator on several occasions and has authored many publications, including the contribution to a chapter in The SAGE Handbook of African American Education. Stay on the look out for his future work!

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If you or someone you know should be featured on The Black Scholars Index, please let us know – featured@blackscholarsindex.com.

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Risa Lavizzo-Mourey: M.D., M.B.A., & CEO of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Leshell Hatley — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:25:27 +0000

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., is the fourth president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a position she assumed in January 2003. She originally joined the staff in April 2001 as the senior vice president and director, Health Care Group. In 2004, she was voted #22 of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes Magazine.

Prior to coming to the Foundation, Lavizzo-Mourey was the Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as director of the Institute on Aging. She was the deputy administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research now known as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality within the Department of Health and Human Services. While in government service, Lavizzo-Mourey worked on the White House Health Care Policy team, including the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform where she co-chaired the working group on Quality of Care.

Lavizzo-Mourey has served on many federal advisory committees, including the Task Force on Aging Research; the National Committee for Vital and Health Statistics, where she chaired the Subcommittee on Minority Populations; and the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry. She recently completed work as co-director of a congressionally requested Institute of Medicine study on racial disparities in health care resulting in the publication of Unequal Treatment, Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. She is the author of scores of articles and several books.

Listen to Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey talk about Childhood Obesity on WashingtonPost.com

Lavizzo-Mourey is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She is the recipient of eight honorary doctorates and numerous other awards, including those received from the Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Health and Human Services, The National Academy of Sciences, American College of Physicians, National Library of Medicine, American Medical Women’s Association, National Medical Association and University of Pennsylvania.

Lavizzo-Mourey earned a medical degree at Harvard Medical School, followed by a master of business administration at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. After completing a residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her geriatrics training.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation conducts research and provides support in the following areas:

Building Human Capital

Childhood Obesity

Coverage

Pioneer

Public Health

Quality/Equality

Vulnerable Populations

Visit their website for more information on their impact across the nation via the organization’s assessment report. They have an awesome website overall and a neat slide presentation builder used to help export data and create slideshows for website visitors.

Follow them on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rwjf

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If you want someone specific featured on The Black Scholars Index, please let us know – featured@blackscholarsindex.com.

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MarK Dean: Holder of 3 of 9 Patents for Personal Computer

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:17:55 +0000

Dr. Mark Dean

Mark Dean is an inventor and a computer scientist. He holds three of the nine original IBM patents upon which the IBM PC personal computers were based. He led the team that developed the ISA bus, and he led the design team responsible for creating the first one-gigahertz computer processor chip.

Born in Jefferson City, Tennessee, Dean holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Florida Atlantic University and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Dean is the first African-American to become an IBM Fellow which is the highest level of technical excellence at the company. In 1997, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Currently, he is an IBM Vice President overseeing the company’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California.

Mark Dean 1998 holding the first Gigaherz (1000mhz) chip

Dean led a team that developed the interior architecture (ISA systems bus) that enables multiple devices, such as modems and printers, to be connected to personal computers. Dean made history again by leading the design team responsible for creating the first 1-gigahertz processor chip, another significant step in making computers faster and smaller.

Dr. Dean has said

“when I was accepted at Stanford I had been out of school for ten years, so it was very difficult. I encourage people to go on to graduate school, but they should not wait as long as I did. It makes it very hard, But for me it was definitely the right thing to do and Stanford was the right place to do it. In hindsight, Stanford was the best choice because I already knew what I wanted to work on and both David Dill and then Mark Horowitz enthusiastically supported me in pursuing the research tropic I wanted to work on. The research I engaged in as a graduate student was very prudent, in that while some of the technology isn’t necessarily what we are doing today, it did allow me to better understand the best ways (pros and cons of certain approaches) to approach the development of processes. I came to Stanford with no knowledge of either circuits or processes, I knew logic design, architectures, bus interfaces and protocol, but I had no real knowledge of transistors, silicon processes and circuits. Stanford was my first exposure to custom circuits design to building things at transistor level. I am now managing a group focused on high-speed circuit design and I couldn’t have done it without the background I received at Stanford.”

ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

***In 1995, Dr. Dean was named an IBM Fellow in 1995, one of only 50 active fellows of IBM’s 300,000 employees. Dean was the first African American to be honored with IBM Fellowship.

***In 1997 Dean was Vice President of Performance for the RS/6000 Division and, along with his colleague Dennis Moeller, Dean was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame which has under 150 members. For inventing “a system that has allowed PCs to become part of our lives.”

***In 1999, as Director of IBM’s Austin Research Lab (in Austin, Texas), he lead the team that built a gigaherz (1000mhz) chip which did a billion calculations per second.

***In 2001 he was elected member of the National Academy of Engineers (NAE) .

***In 2004, Dr. Dean was selected as one of the 50 Most Important Blacks in Research Science.

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If you would like to see someone featured on The Black Scholars Index, please let us know – featured@blackscholarsindex.com

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Henry Lewis Gates: Literary Critic, Educator, Public Scholar

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:24:15 +0000

Henry Lewis Gates, Jr.

Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr. is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. Gates currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University, where he is Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Recently, he became the Editor-In-Chief of The Root, a daily online magazine that provides thought-provoking commentary on today’s news from a variety of black perspectives. The site also hosts an interactive genealogical section to trace one’s ancestry through AfricanDNA.com, a DNA testing site co-founded by him.

He went to Yale and gained his B.A. summa cum laude in History. The first African-American to be awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, the day after his undergraduate commencement, Gates set sail on the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 for the University of Cambridge, where he studied English literature at Clare College. With the assistance of a Ford Foundation Fellowship, he worked toward his Ph.D. in English. While his work in history at Yale had trained him in archival work, Gates’ studies at Clare introduced him to English literature and literary theory.

At Clare College, Gates was also able to work with Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian writer denied an appointment in the department because, as Gates later recalled, African literature was at the time deemed “at best, sociology or socio-anthropology, but it was not real literature.” Soyinka would later become the first black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize; he remained an influential mentor for Gates and became the subject of numerous works by Gates.

In October 1975, he was hired as a secretary in the Afro-American Studies department at Yale. In July 1976, Gates was promoted to the post of Lecturer in Afro-American Studies with the understanding that he would be promoted to Assistant Professor upon completion of his dissertation. Jointly appointed to assistant professorships in English and Afro-American Studies in 1979, Gates was promoted to Associate Professor in 1984. After being denied tenure, he left for Cornell in 1985, and stayed until 1989. After a two-year stay at Duke University, he moved to his current position at Harvard University in 1991. See Gates’ recent blog entry on The Root about the incident that occurred a few days ago in the news.

As a literary theorist and critic, meanwhile, Gates has combined literary techniques of deconstruction with native African literary traditions; he draws on structuralism, post-structuralism, and semiotics to textual analysis and matters of identity politics.

As a black intellectual and public figure, Gates has been an outspoken critic of the Eurocentric literary canon and has instead insisted that black literature must be evaluated by the aesthetic criteria of its culture of origin, not criteria imported from Western or European cultural traditions that express a “tone deafness to the black cultural voice” and result in “intellectual racism.” Gates tried to articulate what might constitute a black cultural aesthetic in his major scholarly work The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism, a 1989 American Book Award winner; the work extended the application of the concept of “signifyin(g)” to analysis of African-American works and thus rooted African-American literary criticism in the African-American vernacular tradition.

While Gates has stressed the need for greater recognition of black literature and black culture, Gates does not advocate a “separatist” black canon but, rather, a greater recognition of black works that would be integrated into a larger, pluralistic canon. He has affirmed the value of the Western tradition but envisions a loose canon of diverse works integrated by common cultural connections:

“Every black American text must confess to a complex ancestry, one high and low (that is, literary and vernacular) but also one white and black…there can be no doubt that white texts inform and influence black texts (and vice versa), so that a thoroughly integrated canon of American literature is not only politically sound, it is intellectually sound as well.“

Moreover, Gates has argued that a separatist, Afrocentric education perpetuates racist stereotypes and maintains that it is “ridiculous” to think that only blacks should be scholars of African and African-American literature. He argues, “It can’t be real as a subject if you have to look like the subject to be an expert in the subject,” adding, “It’s as ridiculous as if someone said I couldn’t appreciate Shakespeare because I’m not Anglo-Saxon. I think it’s vulgar and racist whether it comes out of a black mouth or a white mouth.”

Mediating a position between radicals advocating separatism and traditionalists guarding a fixed, highly homogeneous Western canon, Gates has faced criticisms from both sides; some criticize that the additional black literature will diminish the value of the Western canon, while separatists feel that Gates is too accommodating to the dominant white culture in advocating integration.

As a literary historian committed to the preservation and study of historical texts, Gates has been integral to the Black Periodical Literature Project, an archive of black newspapers and magazines created with financial assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities. To build Harvard’s visual, documentary, and literary archives of African-American texts, Gates arranged for the purchase of “The Image of the Black in Western Art,” a collection assembled by Dominique de Ménil in Houston, Texas. Earlier, as a result of his research as a MacArthur Fellow, Gates had discovered Our Nig, the first novel in the United States written by a black person, Harriet E. Wilson, in 1859; he followed this discovery with the acquisition of the manuscript of The Bondswoman’s Narrative, another narrative from the same period.

As a prominent black intellectual, Gates has focused throughout his career not only on his research and teaching but on building academic institutions to study black culture. Additionally, he has worked to bring about social, educational, and intellectual equality for black Americans and has written pieces in The New York Times that defend rap music and an article in Sports Illustrated that criticizes black youth culture for glorifying basketball over education. In 1992, he received a George Polk Award for his social commentary in The New York Times. Gates’ prominence in this field led to him being tapped as a witness on behalf of the controversial Florida rap group 2 Live Crew in their obscenity case. He argued the material the government alleged was profane, actually had important roots in African-American vernacular, games, and literary traditions and should be protected.

Asked by NEH Chairman Bruce Cole about how Gates would describe what he does, Gates responded, “I would say I’m a literary critic. That’s the first descriptor that comes to mind. After that I would say I was a teacher. Both would be just as important.

In 1999, Gates consulted with Anthony Appiah in the creation of Microsoft Encarta Africana Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Black History and Culture (First edition ed.). Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corp. ISBN 0735600570.

Check out additional work by Dr. Gates.

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If you have suggestions for features on The Black Scholars Index, please contact us immediately – featured@blackscholarsindex.com.

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Regina Benjamin: New US Surgeon General

Leshell Hatley — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:04:30 +0000

Regina Benjamin is a rural family physician forging an inspiring model of compassionate and effective medical care in one of the most underserved regions of the United States. In 1990, she founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic to serve the Gulf Coast fishing community of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, a village of approximately 2,500 residents devastated twice in the past decade by Hurricanes Georges, in 1998, and Katrina, in 2005. Despite scarce resources, Benjamin has painstakingly rebuilt her clinic after each disaster and set up networks to maintain contact with patients scattered across multiple evacuation sites.

She has established a family practice that allows her to treat all incoming patients, many of whom are uninsured, and frequently travels by pickup truck to care for the most isolated and immobile in her region. Benjamin is skilled, as well, in translating research on preventive health measures into accessible, community-based interventions to decrease the disease burdens of her diverse patient base, which includes immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, who comprise a third of Bayou La Batre’s population.

A committed local physician, she also plays key roles statewide and nationally, helping others establish clinics in remote areas of the country and serving in leadership positions in such health-related organizations as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians. With a deep, firsthand knowledge of the pressing needs and health disparities afflicting rural, high-poverty communities, Benjamin is ensuring that the most vulnerable among us have access to high-quality care.

Obama says Dr Regina Benjamin understands the needs of the poor and uninsured, making her uniquely qualified to be America’s doctor as his administration tries to revamp the healthcare system.

Regina Benjamin, a member of Delta Sigma Theta, Sorority, Inc., received a B.S. (1979) from Xavier University of Louisiana, attended Morehouse School of Medicine from 1980 to 1982, and received an M.D. (1984) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham; she also holds an M.B.A. (1991) from Tulane University. She completed her residency in family practice at the Medical Center of Central Georgia (1987). The CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic since its founding in 1990, Benjamin has also served as the associate dean for rural health at the University of South Alabama’s College of Medicine and as president of the State of Alabama Medical Association (2002-2003). She became a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2008.

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Kevin Clark, Ph.D. – Associate Professor Instructional Technology

Leshell Hatley — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:29:53 +0000

Dr. Kevin Clark

Kevin Clark, Ph.D. holds a bachelors and masters degree in computer science from North Carolina State University, and a Ph.D. in Instructional Systems from Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Clark is currently an associate professor in the Instructional Technology, and director of the Center for Digital Media Innovation and Diversity at George Mason University.

Before joining the faculty at George Mason University, Dr. Clark was an assistant professor in the Educational Technology department at San Jose State University. Prior to his work in academia, Kevin worked as a designer and senior program manager of educational software and interactive media for Lightspan, Inc. (now Plato Learning), and was the founder/director of a non-profit community-based after-school program in San Diego, CA.

Dr. Clark’s research interests include the role of video games and interactive media in the education of children, particularly from underserved communities. His recent scholarly activities focus on the use of video game design to increase interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers, and issues of diversity in the design and development video games and other educational media. Dr. Clark has presented at national and international conferences, and has published numerous scholarly publications. The video below is from The George Lucas Foundation and Edutopia where Dr. Clark and this project was featured.

For more information about Dr. Clark and this project, review this George Mason article.

For more information, please visit http://mason.gmu.edu/~kclark6.

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April R. Silver: social entrepreneur • writer/editor

Leshell Hatley — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:49:18 +0000

April Silver

“I am clear-headed and fiercely passionate about my life/work. I am driven to powerfully communicate and represent truth and justice. As tools, media and the arts have an awesome power to heal, beautify, politicize, and ultimately elevate our lives. It is my blessing to do this work in honor of Harriet Tubman and the rest of my ancestral line.”

Ms. Silver is a social entrepreneur, activist, and writer. She heads AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc. (AW), a communications agency that services progressive artists, activists, and organizations. Since 1993, AW’s clients have ranged from local poets to Mos Def to The Ford Foundation. The company is also known for creating Put On BLAST! ™, an email marketing service that houses over 30,000 subscribers!

Ms. Silver is also editor of the anthology Be a Father to Your Child: Real Talk from Black Men on Family, Love, and Fatherhood (2008). In 2006, she was a television talk show host on BETJ’s My Two Cents.

Silver graduated from Howard University. There, she made national and international news as a co-leader of the historic student protest of 1989. She was later elected as student body president and it was during her term that she co-founded the country’s FIRST hip hop conference – a conference that birthed the now thriving hip hop education movement.

For her opinions and 20+ years of arts activism work, Silver has received many honors. Time, Ms., Jet, ESSENCE, Ebony, Newsweek, CNN, The Washington Post, and many other outlets have all quoted or profiled April. Most recently, she became a commentator on WBAI Radio (NY), where she is a weekly panelist on Wake Up Call’s media roundtable.

April’s writings have been published in the NY Daily News and throughout the blogosphere. Her blog is at www.aprilsilver.com. As a result of her work, she has lectured at hundreds of colleges, conferences, and public schools. She has shared the podium with luminaries such as Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Sister Souljah, Kevin Powell, and Rev. Al Sharpton.

A native New Yorker (with roots in Washington, DC and Los Angeles), April currently lives New York.

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If you or someone you know should be featured on The Black Scholars Index, please let us know – featured@blackscholarsindex.com

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