Pamela E. Scott-Johnson, Ph.D., to Become New Provost

Pamela E. Scott-Johnson, Ph.D., will serve as the new Provost/Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs this summer, following a national search of over 100 applicants.

Scott-Johnson currently serves as the Dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA), the largest college at the University. The school encompasses nearly 6,000 undergraduate students.

Prior to her time with Cal State LA, Scott-Johnson served as the Interim Dean of Morgan State University’s College of Liberal Arts, as the Chair of the Department of Psychology and taught as a Professor of Psychology.

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Eleanor Novek, Ph.D., Retires After 25 Years

Eleanor Novek, Ph.D., is stepping down as a Professor of Communication after 25 years. During her time, she wrote three academic journals on prison education and activism, was nominated for the Distinguished Teaching Award, received the Judith H. Stanley Traveling Fellowship for Teaching in the Humanities, and taught dozens of courses related to every corner of the journalism industry.

Outside of the classroom, she joined the Board of Directors for the Redeem-Her Transitional Program for Women, became an Editorial Board Member for both the Atlantic Journal of Communication and the Journal of Prison Education and Reentry. She also became a state coordinator for the Alternatives to Violence Project in which she organized and led nonviolence workshops in prisons, churches, and community centers.

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World Cinema Series Discusses Woman at War

The World Cinema Series hosted a virtual film discussion of Benedikt Erlingsson’s Woman at War on Thursday, Apr. 15.

Moderated by Thomas Pearson, Ph.D., the discussion featured input from faculty speakers Catherine Duckett, Ph.D., Associate Dean of The School of Sciences, Maiya Furgason, Professor in the Department of Management and Leadership, and Nancy Mezey, Ph.D., Dean of the Honors School.

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Walter Greason, Ph.D., Details History of Fictional Wakanda City

Walter Greason, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Counseling and Leadership, presented “Wakanda, Afrofuturism, and the Future of Cities” as part of the “Future of Cities” speaker series hosted by the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech on Wednesday, Apr. 17.

Greason is the creator of the Wakanda Syllabus, a bibliography of resources meant for exploring the artistic and cultural context of Marvel’s Black Panther comics and the fictional African nation of Wakanda.

When it comes to the design of Wakanda, it took a considerable amount of time and effort to settle on a design that could speak to African cultural diversity, but remain accessible and recognizable to a variety of people around the world, Greason explained.

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Brooklyn Nets’ Executive Assistant to GM Talks Career Path

Amanda Bucci, Executive Assistant to the General Manager of the Brooklyn Nets, joined the Sports Industry Club for their virtual speaker series on Wednesday. Apr. 7.

Bucci detailed her job’s expectations while sharing her journey towards the position. She grew up outside Boston, attending Union College with a degree in Environmental Science and Policy. “Out of college, I had a consulting job in the environmental field,” Bucci said. “My title was literally ‘environmental scientist’. I was taking oil samples and water samples and writing up reports.”

After a few years, Bucci was looking for a change and began teaching spin classes, a type of bike-exercise meant for a more intense and short workout. Around 2011, a friend at the time told her of a position at Soul Cycle in New York City.

“I took a leap and I worked on the Upper East Side,” Bucci explained. “[SoulCycle] is a very hospitable place. As someone who worked there, you’re required to know everyone coming in.”

In February of 2016, a frequent SoulCycle customer alerted Bucci that Sean Marks, former NBA player, coach, and now newly appointed General Manager of the Brooklyn Nets was looking for an assistant.

Bucci interviewed with Marks and was hired. She credits her time at SoulCycle as the main experience that drove her skills once hired by the Nets.

“[SoulCycle] is a public facing business,” Bucci said. “You’re having people come in all the time throughout the day, people calling you and you have no idea what they’re going to ask you. You just kind of wear a lot of different hats and that translated easily over into the Nets.”

This year marks Bucci’s 5 year anniversary with the organization. She explained the state of the Nets during her arrival and the organization’s eventual evolution to a playoff fighting team.

“[When I began], we won 21 games,” Bucci said. “We’d go weeks losing game after game. There was no pressure because everyone knew that we weren’t supposed to be good and it was this rebuilding process. We wouldn’t just be good overnight, and it’s been really cool to watch this whole process [of becoming a playoff team].”

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Senior DEA Special Agent Visits Guardians Club

The Guardians Club hosted a virtual webinar with Jonathan Sullivan, a Senior Special Agent of the Drug Enforcement Association (DEA), about his career path on Wednesday, Apr. 7.

Sullivan worked with the Border Patrol for the first years of his career before transitioning to the DEA.

Border Patrol was difficult to get into in the 1990s, Sullivan explained. The process was very selective, with only 1 in 800 applicants becoming hired. Once an applicant reaches the academy, there is a 50 percent attrition rate.

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Panel Discusses COVID-19’s Racial Impact on U.S. Education System

The University held a panel discussion of COVID-19’s impacts on the education system, and how the virus is furthering the gap in racial equity among students, on Wednesday, Apr. 7.

Panelists included Zaneta Rago-Craft, Director of the Intercultural Center; Walter Greason, Chair of the Educational Leadership program; Markus Rodriguez, Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Long Branch Public School District; and Angello Villarreal, ESL teacher in Long Branch Public Schools and NAPDS Antiracism Committee member.

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Global Fisheries Governence and Social Justice Panel

The Institute for Global Understanding (IGU) and Urban Coast Institute (UCI) hosted  a panel discussion that addressed the intersection of fisheries  governance and social justice around the world on Thursday, Apr. 8.

The panel was moderated by Randall Abate, Director of the IGU, and featured presentations from  Yoshitaka Ota, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor for the School of Marine & Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington; Xiao Recio-Blanco, Program Director of the Environmental Law Institute; and Erika Techera, Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Western Australia.

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Hettie Williams, Ph.D., Ties Jersey Shore to Black History

Hettie Williams, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in African American History, discussed the Jersey Shore’s ties to black history on the Eyes On The Jersey Shore radio show on Friday, Feb. 12.

“I think one story that everyone should know about, but they likely do not, is the story of Dr. Walter McAfee,” Williams said.

McAfee was a scientist and mathematician who worked out of Camp Evans. He was one of the hidden figures of science. The scientist worked on Project Diana, a precursor to the space age, Williams explained.

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Sohyun An, Ph.D., Visits School of Education to Discuss Anti-Asian Violence Amid Pandemic

The School of Education invited Sohyun An, Ph.D., Professor of Social Studies Education at Kennesaw State University to virtually discuss Anti-Asian violence amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on education, general citizens, and critical media literacy on Wednesday, Mar. 31.

Jiwon Kim, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Social Studies and Foundations of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, introduced An and the context behind the speaker’s research.

An studies, teaches, and parents with a hope for anti-racist, anti-oppressive school and society for all children, Kim explained.  Her research centers on social studies and teacher education from Critical Race Theory, AsianCrit, social justice, and critical civic literacy perspectives.

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