A Trio of Black Scholars Taking on New Faculty Roles

Bree Alexander was appointed clinical assistant professor and interim coordinator for the bachelor of social work degree program at the University of South Carolina. Earlier, she was a school-based therapist at the South Carolina Department of Mental Health.

Dr. Alexander completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Furman University in South Carolina. She earned a master of social work degree at the University of South Carolina and a Ph.D. in social work at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She is the youngest person to ever earn a Ph.D. in social work at Baylor.

Cajetan Iheka is the new director of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University. He is currently a fellow of the Whitney Humanities Center and a professor of English at Yale. Dr. Iheka joined the faculty at Yale in 2019 after teaching at the University of Alabama. He is the author of two books that bridge African studies, literary and media studies, and the environmental humanities: Naturalizing Africa: Ecological Violence, Agency, and Postcolonial Resistance in African Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and African Ecomedia: Network Forms, Planetary Politics (Duke University Press, 2021).

Dr. Iheka is a graduate of Imo State University in Nigeria, where he majored in English education. He holds a master’s degree in English language and literature from Central Michigan University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan.

Earl J. Edwards is a new assistant professor in the educational leadership and higher education development program in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. He had taught in the public schools in Providence, Rhode Island, and Los Angeles. Dr. Edwards is a co-author of All Students Must Thrive: Transforming Schools to Combat Toxic Stressors and Cultivate Critical Wellness (National Center for Leadership in Education, 2019).

Dr. Edwards is a graduate of Boston College, where he majored in sociology. He holds a master’s degree in school leadership from Teachers College at Columbia University and a Ph.D. in urban schooling from the University of California, Los Angeles