The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education

Elliott Dawes is the inaugural vice president for institutional excellence at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. Dawes most recently served as the executive chief diversity office for the City University of New York’s Baruch College. Earlier, he was the inaugural chief diversity officer for equity and inclusion at SUNY’s Empire State College.

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. Tuskegee University in Alabama was awarded a $699,999 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation for a new project aimed at improving the safety, transparency, and reliability of AI-assisted medical technologies.

Nwando Achebe, a University Distinguished Professor and the Jack and Margaret Sweet Endowed Professor of History at Michigan State University, has been elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious learned societies dedicated to advancing historical scholarship. Fellowships are awarded to scholars who have made original and substantial contributions to the historical discipline.

Edward B. Fort, chancellor emeritus of North Carolina A&T State University, passed away on August 9. He was 94 years old. Dr. Fort earned his bachelor’s degree in history and his master’s degree in educational administration from Wayne State University in his hometown of Detroit. Later in life, he earned his doctorate in educational administration and finance from the University of California, Berkeley.

A multi-university study published in One Earth has projected a significant widening in racial and socioeconomic disparities as a result of climate change in the United States by the year 2100. For their study, the authors examined climate and sociodemographic projections for 3,109 U.S. counties to estimate each county’s exposure to extreme heat during June, July, and August.

In a new article, Cantrell Dumas, senior researcher for financial regulation and policy at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, discusses the persistent barriers facing the economic security of Black retirees and how new state and federal savings policies will not be enough to close the retirement divide.

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research has published a new report discussing the uneven job prospects facing young Black women in the United States. By the end of 2025, there were major disparities in the median weeks spent unemployed for Black women compared to White women. In December 2025, Black women spent a median of 19 weeks unemployed before finding a job, compared to nine weeks for White women.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view. The opinions expressed in these books do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board of JBHE. Click on any of the titles for more information or to purchase through Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, JBHE will earn a fraction of revenue from qualifying purchases.

Joshua Steele has been named the inaugural executive director of Temple Online and vice provost for online and digital learning at Temple University in Philadelphia. He will begin his new role on September 21. Dr. Steele comes to Temple from the University of Tennessee, where he served as associate vice dean of digital learning. In five years, he grew the university’s online undergraduate offerings from two to 25 programs and more than tripled online student enrollment.

Chika C. Okafor, associate professor and director of veterinary public health at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, is the new president-elect of the epidemiology speciality of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine (ACVPM). He will become president in 2027. A Tennessee faculty member since 2015, Dr. Okafor is a pre-harvest food safety epidemiologist who focuses on identifying patterns of antimicrobial use and resistance in veterinary medicine.