Awards & Recognition

Continued collaboration and programming highlights include:

• Hiring and recruitment: JPMorgan Chase has been actively hiring full- and part-time positions in its branches as it continues to expand into new markets, including Greater Washington. This is in conjunction with the ABP Fellowship, where Howard sophomores can apply for a pre-internship program at JPMorgan Chase that bridges into internship roles across the firm’s professional groups focused on asset and wealth management, consumer and community banking, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and corporate strategy and technology.

• Career and professional development: An ABP relationship manager hosts on-campus office hours to coach students on resume and cover letter building, interview preparation and other professional skills. ABP also works in conjunction with Howard’s administration to support curriculum development that aligns with JPMorgan Chase’s hiring needs to better position students and graduates to excel in entry-level careers in finance.

• Financial health and education: JPMorgan Chase and ABP host ongoing programs dedicated to combatting the racial wealth divide by creating pathways to financial health for students through education on topics such as budgeting, credit use and managing student expenses.

Awards & Recognition

Jami Ramberan

Assistant professor in the School of Communications Jami Ramberan won an Emmy for her video, “VOTE.” She was awarded by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the public service announcement (single spot) category. The project is based around the poem “Vote” by Suzen Baraka, a spoken word artist and lawyer, who stars in the video.

“Visually, I wanted to illustrate the historical and current injustices faced by marginalized communities in a creative way. I sought to complement Suzen’s explosive voice with galvanizing archival and stylized images,” Ramberan said. “I wanted viewers to see faces that looked like them, eyes that remind them of their family, friends and neighbors. As a result, I included portraits of everyday people wearing masks to reflect our current condition with messages of activism and hope that support diverse and underrepresented communities.”

To watch the full VOTE video, visit youtube.com/imajrefilms.

Farhana Ferdous

Architecture assistant professor Farhana Ferdous, Ph.D., received the Graham Foundation Grant for a new research project that takes an in-depth look at the history of racial disparities and environmental epidemics and how this has impacted minority health through history. The research, titled “The (pathogenic)-CITY: A Segregated Landscape of Urbanization, Urbanicity and Wellbeing in American Landscape (the 1900s to present),” examines the city of Baltimore as a case study to explore the impact of urbanicity and residential segregation from the city design and planning perspectives.

“‘The (pathogenic)-CITY’ is a chronological history of racial disparities in American landscape by focusing on how urbanization and planning movements have transformed the minority health and well-being from post-industrial society to the present,” Ferdous said. She will look at the impact of planning movements and racism on the development of infectious and manmade diseases among African-Americans.

Clive O. Callender

Howard University transplant surgeon Clive O. Callender, M.D., was honored by the 2021 American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) with its Pioneer Award, the most distinguished award bestowed by the organization upon an individual. The award was presented in August during National Minority Donor Awareness Month.

“One of things I learned early on [in my career] was that there was a shortage of donors and a complexity in this shortage of donors, and that minorities and African-Americans were rarely donors,” Callender said. “This then became the quest for me because I had a rich experience as a church person, and I thought that this was something I should try to do. Yes, it was an impossible dream. But then, in my life, the impossible often became possible. So, this became the challenge that I took up.”

In the early 1970s, Callender began developing the first minority-directed dialysis and transplant center in the country at Howard University Hospital. In 1991, Callender conceptualized and founded the National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP) for the purpose of increasing minority donation rates nationally. The organization has been widely heralded for its public awareness campaigns directed at minority communities. Through the years, such efforts have proved to be extraordinarily effective.

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease

September is National Sickle Cell Awareness Month, and on this particular year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease.

Sickle cell disease can cause debilitating pain and complications in those who suffer from it and greatly affects people of African descent, particularly African-Americans. It affects nearly 100,000 Americans. In the past 50 years, centers like the one at Howard have helped provide sickle cell patients a higher quality of care and have a higher quality of life.

It was in 1971 when the late Dr. Roland B. Scott, a pediatrician, an expert on allergies, and an authority on sickle cell disease, helped champion the Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act, which was passed by Congress in order to establish research and treatment centers around the country. One such center was founded here at Howard University in September of that year.

Dr. Scott became passionate about sickle cell as he treated numerous children experiencing complications from the disease at Howard University Hospital in the 1950s. Knowing how little understood and often misdiagnosed sickle cell was at the time, Dr. Scott knew that our country needed to enhance education about the disease and revitalize the medical system’s ability to care for patients suffering from it.

As a result of the sustained advocacy from the center and other organizations dedicated to the fight against sickle cell, the federal government invests around $100 million annually in sickle cell research in an effort to continue enhancing treatment options and hopefully discovering a cure for the disease. The Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease has participated in every major clinical trial that has led to FDA-approved medications for the treatment of sickle cell disease.

“Not only has the center helped countless numbers of patients like me, but it has also played an instrumental role in improving sickle cell research and

treatment,” said President Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA, who notes that he is also celebrating his 50th birthday this year alongside the center. “The sickle cell center was one of the primary reasons I decided to attend Howard University in 1988. My experience with sickle cell disease motivated me to become a physician, so I enrolled in Howard’s bachelor’s/M.D. dual degree program at the age of 16. But just as importantly, I knew that I needed to learn how to manage my own disease, and I knew that the center was the best place for me to do so.”

Moving Home

“I’m so excited to be a Bison because this has been my dream

school.” Kaila Anderson, freshman business

major, St. Louis

Students and families were welcomed to the Mecca for the first time in over a year. For freshmen and sophomores, it was the first time they had arrived on campus; for juniors and seniors, it was a warm return to a place they once called home. Howard prioritized safety in its move-in process, staggering the students’ arrivals over a 10-day timeline.

In addition to requiring that students be fully vaccinated and confirming their vaccination status prior to move-in, the University also enforced mask wearing, three-foot social distancing rules, and set up sanitizing stations throughout campus buildings. Student leaders conducted temperature checks at the entrance of the residence halls. Dorm rooms were sanitized and sealed prior. Each student was limited to two guests to accompany their move-in and the number of people in elevators at any one time was restricted.

Much of the move-in process was facilitated by juniors and seniors, including dormitory residential advisers, who helped check students and coordinated the flow of individuals into and out of the building.

“It’s kind of surreal. I feel like a freshman because this is my first time on campus, but really I’m a sophomore.”

—Lalah Allen, sophomore nursing major, Chicago

“This has been a long time coming.” —Langston Locke, sophomore chemical engineering major, Fort Lauderdale “As an RA, you’re basically a liaison between the residents and the hall managers and the staff, so we’re confidants, mentors, and we oversee all the residents in the building,” said Taimera Johnson, a junior marketing major from Miami, Florida, who was responsible for taking people’s temperatures as they entered College Hall South. “I know that so many students were robbed of their experience because of COVID and the pandemic, so I’m really happy that they’re actually able to come back on campus in a safe way, and they’re able to actually get their full Howard experience.”

“I feel like they’ve been doing a good job with the safety measures. Especially with wearing the masks and making sure they’re pulled up and cleaning the rooms. I’m glad they’re taking the

precautions.”— Tamia Stott, freshman political science major, Indianapolis