Fisk University and Vanderbilt University Team Up for New Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Graduate School and Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at Vanderbilt University in Nashville has partnered with historically Black Fisk University to create a groundbreaking new postdoctoral fellowship program.

These fellowships have been designed to offer opportunities for recent Vanderbilt Ph.D. graduates to build their teaching and scholarship portfolios, receive mentoring from faculty at both institutions and allow time for publishing their dissertations or preparing other research papers. Fellows will be considered by Fisk for faculty positions, with the goal of leading to tenure-track positions.

Two, 24-month fellowships will be available for the inaugural cohort which will launch this fall. Over the next few years, the cohorts will grow to five and then 10 members, and the plan is to eventually welcome applicants from outside Vanderbilt. The program’s aim is to serve as a national model for predominantly White institutions and historically Black colleges and universities to collaborate to prepare new generations for the professoriate.

“This collaboration with Fisk creates an innovative opportunity for Vanderbilt doctoral students to strengthen their preparation for the professoriate,” said C. Cybele Raver, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. “One aim of our initiative is to provide everyone in our university community with opportunities for deeper engagement and more mentoring, across our campus and beyond. We are proud to partner with another leading Nashville university for the benefit of both of our campus communities.”

Five African American Scholars Who Are Taking on New University Assignments

Derrick Harriell, an associate professor of African American studies and English at the University of Mississippi, is the new director of the university’s African American studies program. Dr. Harriell served as director of the master of fine arts in creative writing program at the university from 2014 to 2022.

A native of Milwaukee, Dr. Harriell holds a master’s of fine arts degree in creative writing from Chicago State University. He earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Crista Johnson-Agbakwu, a professor of obstetrics & gynecology and population & quantitative health sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, has been appointed the inaugural executive director of the medical school’s Collaborative in Health Equity. She was the founding director of the Refugee Women’s Health Clinic and director of the Office of Refugee Health in the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center at Arizona State University.

Dr. Johnson-Agbakwu is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she majored in biology. She earned her medical degree at Cornell University.

Duane Watson, the Frank W. Mayborn Professor and professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, has been named associate provost for faculty development for the university. He has been serving as associate dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion for Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development.

Professor Watson, who joined the faculty at Vanderbilt in 2016 after teaching at the University of Illinois, is a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey, where he majored in psychology. He earned a Ph.D. in brain and cognitive sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Phylicia Rashad, dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University in Washington, D.C., has been named the inaugural holder of the Toni Morrison Endowed Chair in Arts and Humanities at the university. The chair was funded by a $3 million endowment that was part of a $40 million gift to the university in 2020 from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

An accomplished actor and stage director, Rashad is perhaps best known for her role as Claire Huxtable on the long-running television hit “The Cosby Show.” Dean Rashad is a graduate of Howard University and holds honorary doctorates from more than a dozen colleges and universities.

Misty De Berry was hired as an assistant professor of performance studies in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University beginning in the 2023-24 academic year. Dr. De Berry is currently a senior lecturer in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Dartmouth College.

Dr. De Berry is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She holds a master of fine arts degree from Columbia College in Chicago and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Four Black Faculty Members Who Are Taking on New Positions or Roles

Soyica Colbert, former interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and the Idol Family Professor of Performing Arts and African American Studies, was given the added duties of vice president for interdisciplinary initiatives at the university. She joined the faculty in 2013 and has served as chair of the department of performing arts and director of the Theater and Performance Studies Program. She is the author of Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry (Yale University Press, 2021),

Dr. Colbert is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she majored in English. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Arisa White was promoted to associate professor of English and creative writing at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. She was also granted tenure. She joined the faculty in 2018. White is the author of Who’s Your Daddy? (Augery Books, 2021).

White is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she majored in creative writing and literature. She holds a master of fine arts degree in English poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Samuel Johnson, a clinical associate professor at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, was appointed chair of the department of radiology at the medical school. Dr. Johnson joined the WSU School of Medicine faculty as an assistant professor and section chief of ultrasound in 1990. He served as course director of radiologic anatomy for first-year medical students from 2003 to 2017.

Dr. Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences and a medical doctorate at the University of Michigan.

Sherard Robbins is a new lecturer in the department of leadership, policy, and organizations at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development. He is a former assistant research professor in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Robbins is a graduate of Wheelock College, which is now part of Boston University. He holds a master’s degree in higher education administration from Salem State University in Massachusetts. Dr. Robbins earned a master’s degree in constitutional law and a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Arizona.

Higher Education Grants or Gifts of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

Renã Robinson, the Dorothy Wingfield Phillips Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow and professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, received a $2,040,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to start a program that will help underrepresented minority faculty further their success in STEM. The program aims to support underrepresented minority faculty members at predominantly White institutions and provide them with the tools and resources needed to be successful biomedical scientific leaders. The programming will explore how to cope with race-related stress, avoid burnout, set boundaries, and more. The initiative also will provide training in publications and grant writing to increase NIH grant submissions and awards to underrepresented minority faculty. Professor Robinson joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 2017 after teaching at the University of Pittsburgh. A graduate of the University of Louisville, Dr. Robinson holds a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Indiana University.

Alverno College in Milwaukee has been awarded a five-year, $2,890,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education for programs to increase the number of highly trained, bilingual, and racially and ethnically diverse school-based mental health professionals. “There is a need for school psychologists who represent the communities they serve, especially in Milwaukee,” said Jessica Willenbrink, an assistant professor in the educational specialist training program for school psychologists at Alverno and the project director. “There are significant financial and scheduling barriers to complete a school psychology program, especially for underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups. Through this grant, we will be able to offer students scholarships, provide mentorship, and place them in a job in a high-needs school district. We hope that this, in combination with our flexible hybrid program that offers all courses on the weekend, breaks barriers that individuals from underrepresented groups face.”

Historically Black Bowie State University in Maryland received a $2.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation for programs to increase the number and diversity of individuals entering the cybersecurity workforce. The Cyber Scholarship for Service Program at Bowie State will recruit, educate, mentor, and train three computer science majors and two transfer students from community colleges each year over five years. In addition, the undergraduate students will be engaged in research while enhancing their technical skills in critical information infrastructure protection.

Morgan State University, the historically Black educational institution in Maryland, has received a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch Black Queer Everything (BQE), a pioneering initiative that seeks to enrich the discourse of race and racialization nationwide with a specialized focus on the interplay of racialized blackness in the LGBTQ+ community. The goal of the program is to develop innovative research opportunities, humanities-centered collaborative projects, and transformative teaching and curricula to provide meaningful experiences, training, and mentorship opportunities to the next generation of scholar-activists in Black queer studies. The program is under the direction of Anika Simpson, an associate professor in the department of philosophy and religious studies at the university. Dr. Simpson is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, where she majored in philosophy. She holds a master’s degree in elementary education from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Memphis.

New Appointments of African Americans to Diversity Posts in Higher Education

Garrett Green was appointed chief diversity officer at Augusta University in Georgia. He has been serving in the position on an interim basis since July 2022. He also serves as director of Multicultural Student Engagement at the university. Dr. Green has been with Augusta University for eight years and previously was the coordinator of retention and recruitment in the College of Nursing.

Dr. Green holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies and a master’s degree in higher education administration from Georgia Southern University. He holds an educational doctorate from Augusta University.

Nicole Joseph, associate professor of mathematics education at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, has been named associate dean for equity, diversity, and inclusion for the college. Her research explores Black women and girls’ experience and identity in mathematics and how their underrepresentation in mathematics is shaped by whiteness and white supremacy. Dr. Joseph joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2016 after teaching at the University of Denver.

Dr. Joseph is a graduate of Seattle University, where she majored in business administration. She holds a master’s degree in human development from Pacific Oaks College Northwest in Seattle and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Washington.

The Indiana University School of Medicine has named Chemen Neal as its first executive associate dean for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice and chief diversity officer. Dr. Neal joined the faculty at the medical school in 2011 and currently serves as an associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

Dr. Neal is a graduate of San Diego State University. She earned her medical degree at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Indiana University School of Medicine