Seminars

Anthony K. Wutoh, Ph.D., R.Ph.
November 25, 2024

Anthony K. Wutoh, Ph.D., R.Ph. is the Provost of Howard University. He previously served in various roles at the University including as Dean of the College of Pharmacy and Assistant Provost for International Programs. Dr. Wutoh has also served as Director for the Center for Minority Health Services Research, and the Center of Excellence.

Dr. Wutoh received a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 1987. He then completed a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, and Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacy Administration (Pharmacoepidemiology) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Pharmacy. Dr. Wutoh has varied research interests including pharmacoepidemiology, international health, health services/outcomes research, and evaluation of large population databases, particularly in the area of AIDS and HIV infection in older patients. 

Marcus Board Jr.
November 18, 2024

Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University, Dr. Marcus Board studies American politics, Black politics, Radical Black feminist theories of power, and public opinion. His recent book, “Invisible Weapons: Infiltrating Resistance and Defeating Movements”(Oxford, 2022), won best book awards from NCOBPS, APSA, and AES.

Believes that Community organizing is about building a belief that we’ve always needed each other - a lesson we could use right now in the wake of elections, parties, and democracies in crisis.

Cassandra Veney
Executive Director: Center for Women, Gender and Global Leadership
November 18, 2024

Dr. Cassandra Veney served as the Executive Director of the Humanities in Leadership Learning Series (HILLS) at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) from 2021-2023.  Prior to joining CWRU, she was Professor and Chair of the Department of International Relations at the United States International University-Africa, Nairobi, Kenya from 2016-2021.  She was Professor of Political Science at Quinnipiac University.  She held previous faculty positions at the University of Illinois-Chicago, Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), and The Pennsylvania State University.  

Student Panel:
Emma Brown - Junior Political Science
Laila Hinton - Senior Political Science
Evan Robinson - Sophomore Political Science
Tobi Aderotoye - Ph.D. Program in Chemistry

Keneshia Grant
November 4, 2024

Keneshia Grant, PhD is an associate professor of political science at Howard University. She studies the political impact of Black migration in the United States and her research focus is the political impact of Black migration from 1915 to the present. Keneshia is author of The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century (Temple University Press, 2020), which describes Black Americans’ movement into the Democratic Party in the 20th century as a function of their migration to northern cities. Keneshia’s current work questions how return migration, gentrification, and displacement affect civic engagement among Black populations in cities and inner-ring suburbs. Keneshia is a regular media contributor, frequently quoted in national print news outlets and appearing on MSNBC and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. She is a proud graduate of Florida A&M University and earned her PhD in political science at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

Kiona Byrd
November 4, 2024

Kiona Byrd is a fourth-year doctoral student in Education Leadership and Policy Studies. She is a member of Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Fraternity and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Professionally, Kiona has expertise in policy, external communications, and history education.  Her policy experience resulted in her serving in Congress as an education policy advisor and a policy writer for Atlanta Public Schools. She was inducted into the United Way VIP, a member of Georgia WIN, and has received a Proclamation from the Atlanta City Council for her leadership in organizing the Blacks In Tech Policy Conference (BITCon), and was named to the Young Government Leaders Top 40 under 40. Kiona is an alumna of the Stanford University Hollyhock Fellowship, and both the Urban Leaders and Policy and Advocacy Summer Fellowship with Leadership in Educational Equity. A former high school history teacher and Teach For America (TFA) corps member, she hails from Charlotte, NC, and has spent significant time in Atlanta, GA. Kiona is the proud mother of one son, Logan, who aspires to attend Howard University. Her research interest is rooted in perspectives of the use of generative artificial intelligence in classroom instruction for historically marginalized students. She hopes to create equity in education at all levels. 

Ayesha Rascoe
October 28, 2024
Host, Weekend Edition Sunday and Up First

Ayesha Rascoe is the host of Weekend Edition Sunday and the weekend host of Up First. As host of the morning news magazine show, she interviews newsmakers, entertainers, politicians and more about the stories that everyone is talking about or that everyone should be talking about.

Rascoe is also the editor of HBCU Made: A Celebration of the Black College Experience, a book of essays about the impact of historically Black colleges and universities. Rascoe is an alumnae of Howard University, an HBCU in Washington, D.C.

Prior to her role as host, Rascoe was a White House Correspondent. She covered three presidential administrations, gaining a reputation for her sharp questioning in the White House briefing room. Rascoe's reporting included a number of high-profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. 

Before joining NPR, Rascoe spent the first decade of her career at Reuters, rising from a news assistant to an energy reporter to eventually covering the White House. While at Reuters, Rascoe covered some of the biggest energy and environmental stories of the past decade, including the 2010 BP oil spill and the U.S. response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011. She also spent a year covering energy legal issues and court cases.

Dr. LaTanya Brown-Robertson
October 21, 2024
Student Success

Associate Dean,
Office of Academic Innovation and Student Success (AIS2) 

Dr. LaTanya Brown-Robertson is the Associate Dean for the Office of Academic Innovation and Student Success (AIS2) at Howard University, where she also serves as a Professor of Economics and Director of the Honors Program in the College of Arts and Sciences. In this expanded role, the Honors Program will be integrated into the broader AIS2 office.  Dr. Brown-Robertson's academic journey is deeply rooted in Howard University, where she earned her Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. in Economics. Her expertise spans various fields, including data science and analytics, urban economics, housing economics, and stratification economics. As the Northeastern Regional Head for the National Data Science Alliance (NDSA), a $10 million NSF INCLUDES initiative, Dr. Brown-Robertson continues to drive innovation in data science education and curriculum innovation across HBCUs. She is also the Principal Investigator for an NSF-funded Data Science Honors Study Abroad program entitled International THREADS (Thesis Honors Research Experiences for Academic Data Scientists).

Student Panel:

12:10 pm session:
Kalyssa Gilipsee - Junior, Criminology
Willie White - Senior, Political Science
Naomi Turner - Junior, English 

3:10 pm session:
Naomi Turner
Willie white
Garima Rokaya - Honors Senior, psychology
Chase Austin - Honors Senior

Ciara J. Williams
October 21, 2024
Student Success

Ciara J. Williams serves as the Assistant Director of Student Affairs (Experiential Learning, Scholarships, and Career Readiness) for Academic Student Affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University. 

Ms. Williams is a proud native of Prince George’s County, Maryland. She earned her bachelor’s degree in education from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and a Master of Education degree in Higher Education Administration from Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Ciara has always been an advocate for student success; she strives to create a place where all students can flourish in and beyond the classroom. She lives by the famous words of Dr. Maya Angelou: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

Saleem Sullivan
October 21, 2024
Student Success

Associate Director of Student Affairs for Academic and Student Services

Mr. Saleem Sullivan is a native of Mount Vernon, NY. Mr. Sullivan earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with a minor in Management Information Systems from Saint Paul’s College (Lawrenceville, VA). He continued his education at Virginia State University, where he earned a master’s degree in Sport Management. Mr. Sullivan comes to the COAS Office of the Dean with over 12 years of experience working in higher education. He has strong expertise with hands-on interaction with students from diverse academic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds. He has served as an academic advisor, a transfer articulation coordinator, and most recently he served as an Assistant Registrar. Mr. Sullivan is passionate about education and believes in advocating for students. He enjoys spending time with his son, friends, and family. He is a former 3x ALL-CIAA collegiate student athlete (baseball) and a proud member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. 

Paris Le'Mond Adon
October 21, 2024
Student Success

Director of Student Services

A highly experienced senior executive with over twenty years of experience in higher education, special education, education administration, and pedagogy. Bringing extensive expertise that has consistently made a positive impact on organizations. A respected educational leader with a strong background in creative thinking, practical problem-solving abilities, and exceptional oral and written communication skills. Demonstrated success in leading change, including implementing services, monitoring and evaluating programs, ensuring compliance, providing professional development, and overseeing progress monitoring for the success of key stakeholders.

Departments in College of Arts & Sciences
October 7, 2024

Introduction to various departments and programs

Nikole Hannah-Jones
Sept 30, 2024

Knight Chair in Race and Journalism
https://nikolehannahjones.com/

Nikole Hannah-Jones is the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. The book version of The 1619 Project as well as the 1619 Project children's book, Born on the Water, were instant #1 New York Times bestsellers. Her 1619 Project is now a six-part docuseries on Hulu. 

Hannah-Jones has spent her career investigating racial inequality and injustice, and her reporting has earned her the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the Genius grant, a Peabody Award, two George Polk Awards and the National Magazine Award three times. 

She also serves as the Knight Chair of Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she founded the Center for Journalism & Democracy. Hannah-Jones is also the co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, which seeks to increase the number of investigative reporters and editors of color, and in 2022 she opened the 1619 Freedom School, a free, afterschool literacy program in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa. Hannah-Jones holds a Master of Arts in Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned her Bachelor of Arts in History and African-American studies from the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Mario Beatty
Sept 30, 2024
Associate Professor of Afro American Studies

Dr. Mario Beatty is an Associate Professor in the Department of Afro American Studies at Howard University. Dr. Beatty received his B.A. degree in Black World Studies/History at Miami University; his M.A. degree in Black Studies at The Ohio State University; and his Ph.D. degree in African-American Studies at Temple University, where his dissertation, “The Image of Celestial Phenomena in the Book of Coming Forth by Day: An Astronomical and Philological Analysis,” directed by the noted Egyptologist Theophile J. Obenga, remains the only major work to read the Egyptian Book of the Dead as a document on Pharaonic Egyptian Astronomy. Prior to coming to Howard, Dr. Beatty served as Chairperson of the Department of African-American Studies at Chicago State University and Chair of the Department of African World Studies at Morris Brown College. As an educational consultant to the School District of Philadelphia, Dr. Beatty helped to write curriculum and to train teachers in the district’s novel and mandatory high school course in African-American history. In May 2008, he became the first African American to present a paper at the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists in Rhodes, Greece. One of the foremost American students of Ancient Egyptian Language of his generation, Beatty has also mastered Hieratic, Demiotic and Coptic language, enabling him to conduct translations of texts that stretch between the nearly three thousand years of classical African history. Dr. Beatty is a former recipient of the UNCF/Henry C. McBay Fellowship as well as a former Scholar-In-Residence fellow at New York University. He received the 2010 Carter G. Woodson Award for Excellence in Research and Teaching from the National Council for Black Studies. In December 2010, he was formally invited to deliver a conference paper at the Third World Festival of African Arts held in Dakar, Senegal. He currently serves as a Board Member for The Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC), and is also an active member of the American Research Center in Egypt, the Egyptological Seminar in New York, the Cheikh Anta Diop Institute of Egyptology and African Civilization and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, among others. Dr. Beatty’s research interests include the Ancient Egyptian language, history, wisdom literature, astronomy in Ancient Egyptian religious texts, comparative analyses of African cultures, the image and use of ancient Africa in the African-American historical imagination, the theory and practice of African-American Studies, and Pan-Africanism.

Dr. Sung Kim
Sept 23, 2024
Assistant Professor of Chemistry

The use of AI in the classroom 

My primary research interest is a structural, functional, and compositional analysis of bacterial cell walls and the mode of action of novel antimicrobial agents that target them. The cell wall is a supramacromolecule with heterogeneous structures that is not compatible with most biophysical and biochemical techniques but readily accessible by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR).  The use of SSNMR has led to determining the mode of action of second-generation glycopeptide antibiotics and structural characterization of the peptidoglycan tertiary structures in Gram-positive pathogens including S. aureus, E. faecalis, and E. faecium.  As a natural extension of this work, my lab has been focusing on applying and developing liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to characterize the peptidoglycan compositions in bacteria. My lab is also actively involved in developing multiple-resonance magic-angle spinning transmission-line probes for SSNMR.

Dr. Jules Harrell
Sept 16, 2024
Professor of Psychology

Dr. Harrell is a leading researcher in the field of of the effects of stress and racism on the health of African Americans.  He was recently awarded a 3-year grant by NSF, Developmental Mechanisms of African American Ethnic and Racial Identity During the Transition to Adulthood, to examine the multifaceted ways in which African American ethnic identity and racial identity (ERI) - the personal significance and meaning of race and ethnicity to an individual - shapes the association between racial discrimination experiences and biopsychosocial development during the transition to adulthood. 

Dr. Greg Carr
Sept 9, 2024
Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies

Greg Carr is an Associate Professor of Afro-American Studies at Howard University and has served as Department Chair for 12 years. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Howard School of Law. He is First Vice President of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and Editor of The Compass: The Journal of ASCAC.  A former board member of the National Council for Black Studies, Dr. Carr has twice been named national “HBCU Male Faculty Member of the Year” by HBCU Digest and has been voted "Professor of the Year" several times by Howard students.. He led the team that designed the curriculum framework for the School District of Philadelphia’s mandatory high school African American History course and, during his time as the District's Program Specialist on Race and Culture,  co-founded Philadelphia Freedom Schools. His writing has appeared in books, academic and popular journals and he serves as a contributor to and/or commentator in a wide range of media. He is a weekly panelist on the daily digital news show “Roland Martin Unfiltered” and co-hosts Karen Hunter’s weekly Saturday YouTube series, “In Class With Carr.” His commentaries on the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther Party and the opening of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture appeared in the August and September 2016 issues of Ebony Magazine. Dr. Carr’s chapter, “Re-Literacy and African Power in the Trump Era,” appears in Not Our President, Third World Press’ book-length commentary on the Trump presidency. 

Danica White (Library Science)  

August 26, 2024

Introduction to Howard University Libraries

As the First Year Engagement Librarian at Howard University Libraries, Danica holds the responsibility of crafting and executing initiatives aimed at fostering connections between undergraduate students and library resources, while nurturing their information literacy skills and academic achievements. Danica designs customized programs, workshops, and outreach endeavors to actively engage and support students in effectively navigating the university's libraries and academic resources.

Watha Daniel 

August 26, 2024

Introduction to Shaw/Watha T. Daniel Library
1630 7th St. NW

Washington, DC 20001
https://www.dclibrary.org/plan-visit/shaw-watha-t-daniel-library

April King 

August 26, 2024

Introduction to Shaw/Watha T. Daniel Library
1630 7th St. NW

Washington, DC 20001
https://www.dclibrary.org/plan-visit/shaw-watha-t-daniel-library