Two leading African-American education scholars are taking on new roles at separate institutions when the academic school year resumes in August.
Dr. Terrence Hicks, former dean of the Whitlowe R. Green College of Education at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, has been appointed dean of the Claudius G. Clemmer College of Education at East Tennessee State University.
Dr. Robert T. Palmer, an associate professor of student affairs at Binghamton University, who was named by Diverse as a 2015 Emerging Scholar, has accepted a tenured associate professorship in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Howard University.
Howard — a historically Black college in Washington, D.C. — is in the early stages of developing a Ph.D. program in higher education with a particular focus on HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions. In his new role, Palmer will be tasked with helping to get the program off the ground.
“I am thrilled to be starting this journey in my career at Howard University,” said Palmer. “Howard has a dynamic reputation and the faculty in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies are doing exceptional research on issues encumbering the urban communities of D.C and beyond. I am excited to be at an institution that fully appreciates me and values my research.”
For Hicks, who has spent his academic career teaching at HBCUs, the opportunity to lead a college of education at a large, predominantly White state institution, is an exciting challenge.
“ETSU has a very attractive academic model,” he said, adding that, in addition to the academic programs within the College of Education, there is an Olympic training site and a year-round K-12 laboratory school affiliated with the university that has an enrollment of about 15,000 students. “It’s a great place to work.”
