Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Michigan State University”

Economist Lisa Cook Confirmed to Federal Reserve Board, 1st Black Woman Governor in Agency’s 108-Year History

Economist Lisa Cook Confirmed to Federal Reserve Board, 1st Black Woman Governor in Agency’s 108-Year History

By goodblacknews on May 10, 2022

According to washingtonpost.com,  economist Lisa Cook was confirmed today to serve on the Federal Reserve Board.

She is the first Black woman to help oversee the nation’s central bank as it works to stabilize financial recovery in the United States.

To quote from washingtonpost.com:

Cook was confirmed by a 51-to-50 vote in the Senate, with Vice President Harris casting the tiebreaking vote.

No Republicans voted for Cook, and Democrats, who hold a razor-thin majority, had delayed moving forward on her nomination until they could assemble all 50 of their members to back her.

Cook is among the country’s preeminent economists and teaches at Michigan State University.

Her research has focused on macroeconomics, economic history, international finance and innovation, particularly on how hate-related violence has harmed U.S. economic growth.

Her work has analyzed how patent records show that the riots, lynchings and Jim Crow laws that targeted African American communities in the late 1800s and early 1900s hurt Black people’s ability to pursue inventions and discoveries at the time.

Cook also worked on the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration and has held visiting appointments at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the University of Michigan and the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and Philadelphia.

Read more:

Apple Launches New Racial Equity and Justice Initiative Projects Nationwide

Apple Launches New Racial Equity and Justice Initiative Projects Nationwide

By goodblacknews on January 13, 2021

[Photo courtesy apple.com: Jared Bailey, a senior at Morehouse College, has integrated Apple’s coding and creativity curricula into his public health and community service work as part of the school’s partnership with Apple, a collaboration that is expanding further with the launch of the Propel Center.]

Today, Apple announced a set of major new projects as part of its $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI) to help dismantle systemic barriers to opportunity and combat injustices faced by communities of color.

These efforts include the Propel Center, a first-of-its-kind global innovation and learning hub for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); an Apple Developer Academy to support coding and tech education for students in Detroit; and venture capital funding for Black and Brown entrepreneurs.

“We are all accountable to the urgent work of building a more just, more equitable world — and these new projects send a clear signal of Apple’s enduring commitment,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

“We’re launching REJI’s latest initiatives with partners across a broad range of industries and backgrounds — from students to teachers, developers to entrepreneurs, and community organizers to justice advocates — working together to empower communities that have borne the brunt of racism and discrimination for far too long. We are honored to help bring this vision to bear, and to match our words and actions to the values of equity and inclusion we have always prized at Apple.”

Michigan State University Receives $1.5 Million Grant to Build Slave Trade and Ancestry Database

By goodblacknews on January 14, 2018

MSU African Studies Center Facebook Cover Photo (via facebook)

via newsone.com
$1.5 million grant gifted to Michigan State University by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will go towards the cultivation of a database that harbors information about former slaves, MSU Today reported.
The database, which is part of the institution’s Enslaved: The People of the Historic Slave Trade initiative, will encompass data surrounding those who came to America during the Atlantic slave trade; giving individuals the opportunity to explore their ancestry, the news outlet writes. Individuals who utilize the database will also be able to view maps, charts, and graphics about enslaved populations.
The project is being spearheaded by Dean Rehberger, director of Matrix: The Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at MSU, Walter Hawthorne, professor and chair of MSU’s Department of History and Ethan Watrall, who serves as an assistant professor of anthropology at the university.
MSU Today reports that the project will go through several phases and take nearly a year and a half to be completed.
Hawthorne believes that the database will allow scholars to delve deeper into the dark history of slavery. “By linking data compiled by some of the world’s foremost historians, it will allow scholars and the public to learn about individuals’ lives and to draw new, broad conclusions about processes that had an indelible impact on the world,” he said in a statement, according to the source.
Michigan State University has one of the top African history graduate programs in the country and leaders at the institution believe that this new project will further its impact in this space. Institutions who have partnered with MSU for the project include Emory University, Vanderbilt University, Harvard University, the University of Maryland and others.
Slavery has been a common topic at colleges and universities across the country with many institutions coming forward to acknowledge and come to terms with their ties to slavery. Rutgers University recently paid tribute to former slaves by renaming parts of its campus after individuals who built the university from the ground up.
Source: MSU Today

Study by Professor Sheretta Butler-Barnes Shows Positive Racial Identity Improves Academic Performance of Young Black Women

By goodblacknews on January 7, 2018

Sheretta Butler-Barnes works with Girls Inc. Eureka! Program, which exposes high school girls of color to an intensive STEM-based curriculum. Her research addresses structural racism and inequalities in education and youth development.(photo via brownschool.wustl.edu)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
According to jbhe.com, a study led by Sheretta Butler-Barnes, an assistant professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis, finds that young African American women with strong racial identity are more likely to be academically curious and persistent in school.
Researchers surveyed 733 adolescent Black girls from middle and high schools across three socio-economically diverse school districts in the Midwest. The study found that positive perceptions of school climate and racial identity were associated with greater academic motivation. The researchers also learned that racial identity acted as a protective factor in hostile or negative school climates.
“Persons of color who have unhealthy racial identity beliefs tend to perform lower in school and have more symptoms of depression,” Dr. Butler-Barnes said. “In our study, we found that feeling positive about being Black, and feeling support and belonging at school may be especially important for African-American girls’ classroom engagement and curiosity. Feeling connected to the school may also work together with racial identity attitudes to improve academic outcomes.”
Dr. Butler-Barnes joined the Brown School in July 2012 as an assistant professor. Previously, Butler-Barnes was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan’s School of Education affiliated with the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context.
The study, “Promoting Resilience Among African American Girls: Racial Identity as a Protective Factor.” was published on the website of the journal Child Development. It may be accessed here.
To see Butler-Barnes speak about Equity in Education, click below:

California State University at Fullerton Professor Natalie Graham Wins Cave Canem Poetry Prize

By goodblacknews on August 30, 2016

African-American Studies Assistant Professor Natalie Graham (photo via news.fullerton.edu)
African-American Studies Assistant Professor Natalie Graham (photo via news.fullerton.edu)

article via jbhe.com
Natalie Graham, assistant professor of African American studies at California State University, Fullerton, has been selected as the winner of the 2016 Cave Canem Poetry Prize from the Brooklyn, New York-based Cave Canem Foundation. The nonprofit organization was founded by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in 1996 to remedy the underrepresentation and isolation of African American poets in the literary landscape.
Dr. Graham will receive a cash prize and have her manuscript –  Begin With a Failed Body – published by the University of Georgia Press in the fall of 2017. She joined the faculty at California State University, Fullerton in 2013.
In describing her award-winning poetry collection, Dr. Graham said “the collection contains poems that are often dark — reimagining iconic religious, literary, and historical figures. They imagine a haunted Southern landscape where history is inescapable. When they speak of nation, religion or family, they often ruminate on the individual body’s frailty in the face of these larger, sturdier structures.”
Dr. Graham holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in American studies from Michigan State University.

Rwandan Doctoral Student Wins Award for Work in Plant Genetics

By goodblacknews on November 2, 2012

Gerardine Mukeshimana, a doctoral student in plant breeding, genetics, and biotechnology at Michigan State University, received the 2012 Award for Scientific Excellence from the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development. Mukeshimana is being honored for her work in the breeding of the Phaseolus vulgaris L. bean in her home country of Rwanda. Her work has made the bean more resistant to disease and better able to withstand drought.

Mukeshimana’s research is supported by the Dry Grain Pulses Collaborative Research Support Program. This project, managed at Michigan State, is a partnership between U.S. universities, developing country institutions and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The research program addresses issues of hunger and poverty through science and technology.

article via jbhe.com