I was born and reared in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and am the son of parents educated at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. As a southerner and the great-great-grandson of enslaved Africans who were held captive in South Carolina, I, too, chose to attend HBCUs.

I received my bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in Spanish from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, and I earned a doctorate in biomedical sciences from Meharry Medical College.

When I finished my Ph.D., I completed postdoctoral training in basic stem cell biology in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. At the time, I was one of approximately 25 people in my research lab. I was the only African American scientist in my lab and department that I knew of. I got there because I earned it, but also because someone had exposed me to the opportunity.

I enjoyed the research, met some new friends and truly felt welcome in the lab, but something was missing. I did not have the same sense of community that HBCUs cultivate and knew that I could make more of a difference in helping to increase the numbers and success of underrepresented groups from an administrative position.

Since leaving the lab, I have served in numerous roles in an attempt to pay it forward, including research and science specialist in the Office for Diversity, Inclusion and Community Partnership at Harvard Medical School; senior director for life sciences, health care and education industry partnerships with United Way in Boston; inaugural director of the Office for Multicultural Faculty Careers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; associate dean of the Graduate School and associate dean for diversity in the Division of Biology and Medicine at Brown University; and the inaugural associate provost for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at Northwestern University.

Early in my administrative career, I completed the Massachusetts Education Policy Fellowship sponsored by the Institute for Educational Leadership as well as the Harvard University Administrative Fellows Program. All these experiences helped inform and prepare me for my current role as Michigan State University’s first vice president and chief diversity officer. I appreciate the opportunity to help marshal these efforts at Jabbar R. Bennett, Ph.D., Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer and Professor of Medicine, Michigan State University one of the nation’s largest institutions of higher education and acknowledge those who served before me without the designation of vice president. I lead the Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and am guiding the implementation of MSU’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategic priorities, which emerged from various planning processes over the past couple of years. At MSU, I am also a professor of medicine in the College of Human Medicine.

Michigan State is one of the nation’s premier land-grant institutions, a top global university and the No. 1 public university for education abroad. In addition, we have over 40 undergraduate and graduate programs ranked in the top 25 nationally in the U.S. News & World Report. We boast a strong alumni network, including MSU Black Alumni Inc., which recently celebrated its 42nd anniversary.

MSU fosters inclusive excellence toward our shared success and fulfilling our mission of providing a world-class education to all. We have expanded partnerships with HBCUs in the sciences, created opportunities for underrepresented groups to attend graduate and professional school and established the Department of African American and African Studies. Earlier this year, our very own Lisa D. Cook, a professor of economics and international relations, became the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors.

Additional efforts include the establishment of MSU’s first campus-wide Juneteenth celebration and commitment to creating our first free-standing multicultural center. This academic year, Michigan State enrolls the most diverse student body in recent history, continuing to increase our graduation rate and eliminate opportunity gaps.

At MSU, diversity and success go hand in hand to create an experience of Spartan belonging. To learn more about these and other efforts, I invite you to visit msu.edu.

 

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