Clark Atlanta University Magazine Spring 2015

SPRING 2015 www.cau.edu

MAGAZINE

FORGING STEAM AHEAD CAU Integrates STEM and the Arts to Precipitate Exciting New Paradigms

FOREWORD

Honoring our Legacy by Forging Ahead with STEAM When Atlanta University was founded in 1865, the same year that the Civil War ended, and, four years later in 1869, when Clark College was founded, the young men and women who studied under the banner of these great institutions did so against the backdrops of politics, economics and social convention that were not fully aligned with the visionary 1863 edict of Abraham Lincoln, the country’s 16th president and the author of the Emancipation Proclamation.

In addition to calling for the manumission of Negro slaves in states that had seceded from the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, in Lincoln’s own words, recommended that freed slaves should “in cases when allowed, ...labor faithfully for reasonable wages.”

History indicates that those five words, “labor faithfully for reasonable wages,” would ring hollow, if at all, in the ears of Southerners whose formerly robust fortunes, once vested primarily in domestic and foreign demand for cotton, had been ravaged by a war that literally decimated essential labor, distribution and (agricultural) product development operations.

Fortunately, the Freedmen’s Aid Society, founded by the American Missionary Association (AMA) in 1861, was prepared to reseed the war-torn economy, if not the next cash crop. Within three months of its founding, the AMA was organizing

2

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

into action. By 1862, it had placed 52 instructors in 59 communities, opening schools for an estimated 5,000 men, women and children who would relinquish their chains — literal and figurative — to pursue teaching, nursing and other professions. Despite a hostile, Democraticled legislative environment, the AMA, administered by the Methodist Episcopal Church, would establish more than 500 schools and colleges by the turn of the century, Clark College, the nation’s first private, liberal arts college with a primarily AfricanAmerican student population, and Atlanta University, the nation’s oldest predominantly African-American graduate school, among them.

Much more than institutional mottos, “Find a Way or Make One” and “Culture for Service” are quintessential identification markers in the organizational makeup of our prestigious institution, no less significant than is DNA to the human form. In this reality alone, I have found great inspiration during my past eight years of association with this historic, barrier-breaking institution.

As a young black boy growing up in 1950s and 60s Macon, Ga., I experienced firsthand the strangleholds of Reconstruction-era segregation.

Some 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, America, from my vantage point, was still, clumsily wrestling with the question of how to embrace the very humanity it had

once relegated to three-fifths human.

If there was any light other than Divine Guidance on my path into adulthood, it was the illuminating influence of parents who routinely communed with the truth as told by sages like Paul Laurence Dunbar, Arna Bontemps, Gwendolyn Brooks and W.E.B. Du Bois. Their hopes and expectations transported me — body, mind and consciousness — from a veritable storehouse of antebellum mores to the hallways of the Academy where, against the backdrop of an angry America, I honed my intellect and my activism for the journey before me.

My experiences in college and graduate school, which spanned the late 1960s and 1970s, affirmed my life’s purpose, alleviating any distinction between my personal values and my professional calling. Following the example of the AMA missionaries in the 1860s and my parents in the 1960s, I have invested a career into creating opportunities for others to relinquish their own chains, whatever they may have been, to pursue

Continued on page 2

MAGAZINE WWW.CAU.EDU

PRESIDENT Carlton E. Brown VICE PRESIDENT FOR INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT Trisa Long Paschal

FEATURES Forging STEAM Ahead CAU Integrates STEM and the Arts to Precipitate Exciting New Paradigms

Preparing Today’s Students for Tomorrow’s Careers How STEAM creates more than hot air at CAU 20

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS & UNIVERSITY RELATIONS Donna L. Brock

CAU Curriculum Changes Set a New Path Collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity rule

24

Full STEAM Ahead Building a Better Graduate

26

PHOTOGRAPHY Curtis McDowell, Foxx Media Group, Jay Thomas

Partner Spotlights CAU Guild: 22nd Annual Jazz Under the Stars Concert

28

PRINTING Graphic Solutions Group

Toyota Provides Key To Driving Down CAU’s Carbon Footprint

29

Student Spotlights Austin Casillas: Driving It Through the Goal Posts

30

Alycia Attaway: Excellence in the Face of Adversity

31

Danica Nestor: Doing Well By Doing Good

32

Ahmed Alkhaldi: Changing Places

33

Alumni Spotlights Lewis Wooten’s Career Takes Orbit

34

Chloe Poston: Pivoting Off the STEM Pipeline

36

Alysha K. Thompson: Fashioning Harlem’s New Runway

37

Maurice Slaughter: Cruising to New Heights

38

EDITOR Joyce Jones CONTRIBUTORS Erin Evans, David Lindsay, Frank McCoy, Matthew Scott DESIGN DesignEng

Clark Atlanta Magazine is published by the Clark Atlanta University Office of Institutional Advancement and University Relations. Address letters and comments to Clark Atlanta Magazine, Clark Atlanta University, Director of Strategic Communications, 223 James P. Brawley Drive, S.W., Atlanta, GA 30314. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs (5x7 or larger preferred) are welcomed for possible inclusion in the magazine. Selection and publication are at the discretion of the editors. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors, not necessarily of the University.

Clark Atlanta University is a member of the Atlanta University Center, a consortium of five educational institutions and is the largest of The College Fund/ UNCF institutions. Clark Atlanta does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, age or handicap in the recruitment and admission of its students, in the administration of its educational policies and programs, or in its staff as specified by federal law and regulations.

First-class postage paid in Atlanta, Ga. Copyright ©2015 by Clark Atlanta Magazine of Clark Atlanta University.

DEPARTMENTS University News

4

Faculty Forum

12

Meet President-Elect Ronald A. Johnson, Ph.D.

14

Founders Day 2015

18

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

1

their personal and professional aspirations. I cannot fathom a higher calling.

And then, through the encouragement of a loving wife, my calling reached its highest intensity upon entry to the HBCU world at Hampton University.

For every student I was privileged to encounter over the past four decades, I am eternally grateful. That so many of these rich encounters have unfolded here at Clark Atlanta University over the past eight years is humbling and exhilarating! On June 30, my course will take a new direction. I will retire from this phase of a career abounding with blessings I will spend a lifetime recounting.

One of my most prized rewards is that work begun here during my administration as president has come to fruition through the Center for Innovation and

2

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

tional means of economic advancement are not fully operative for our youth.

This is unacceptable. Our institutions and our students need new approaches to personal and career development, earning livings, generating wealth and power, and impacting the future of our families and communities.

Just as our parent institutions “found a way or made one” 150 years ago, the CIED, under the leadership of Vice President of Research and Sponsored Programs James Perkins, Ph.D., and CIED Director David Duncan, is once again reseeding traditional paradigms in higher education by serving as an accelerator for rigorous, intensive graduate and undergraduate research that focuses innovation and discovery across the academic spectrum, literally creating intellectual commodities that will be distributed not through industrial channels (as was “king cotton”), but through entrepreneurial channels that will harness prescient marketplace intelligence, targeting and creating demand for new knowledge — the telling of new truths

— and, in the process, infusing the arts, helping professions and humanities into the STEM disciplines, transforming STEM to STEAM+, to create a more robust catalog of competitive career and entrepreneurial opportunities for our students, graduates and alumni.

As I take a new turn after 40 years, retiring from institutional leadership after my service as the third president of Clark Atlanta, I do so knowing that we have honored the legacy of our parent institutions and, most important, we are forging STEAM+ ahead, ever in pursuit of freedom.

God bless CAU. Carlton E. Brown, President

JAY THOMAS

Entrepreneurial Development (CIED) and our new Center for Undergraduate Research. My long press for reform in general education and my recognition at the outset that higher education had undergone significant change led to the exploration of our entry to the world of innovation and entrepreneurialism. As I led our team into the first Summit at Stanford University to pursue innovation, I knew that CAU had the capability to engage.

Our enabling work in process and policy reconstruction, infrastructure building in critical areas of enrollment management, research, and advancement have enabled the environment to support new efforts.

The record of progress in our nation is such that the playing field now global in scope is still unlevel for youth of color seeking to “labor faithfully for reasonable wages.” Unemployment in the African-American community continues to be a scourge. Unemployment among us is high even with collegiate educations and advanced degrees. Clearly, tradi-

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

3

UNIVERSITY NEWS Marc Morial to Deliver Commencement Keynote Address Marc H. Morial, president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League (NUL), will deliver the keynote address during Clark Atlanta University’s 2015 Commencement Convocation on May 18.

“We are delighted that Mr. Morial will address our graduates to share his intellect, experience and stellar leadership as a true Renaissance man who is also a public servant. His outstanding contributions in academia, business, law and the nonprofit sector paint an unparalleled picture of inspiration for our youth,” said CAU President Carlton E. Brown.

Morial is one of the most accomplished servant-leaders in the nation. He has been an entrepreneur, lawyer, professor, legislator, mayor, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and now CEO of the nation’s largest civil rights organization.

As president of the National Urban League since 2003, he has been the primary catalyst for an era of change – a transformation for the 100-year-old civil rights organization. His energetic and skilled leadership has expanded NUL’s work around an empowerment agenda that is redefining civil rights in the 21st century with a renewed emphasis on closing the economic gaps between whites and blacks and between rich and poor Americans.

Under his stewardship, NUL has had record success toward a $250 million, five-year fundraising goal and Morial has secured BBB nonprofit certification, which established the organization as a

leading national nonprofit. His creativity has led to initiatives such as the Urban Youth Empowerment Program to help young adults secure sustainable jobs, and Entrepreneurship Centers in five cities to aid the growth of small businesses.

Morial also created the National Urban League Empowerment Fund, which has pumped almost $200 million into urban impact businesses, including minority business, through both debt and equity investments.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics and African-American studies, he also holds a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., and honorary degrees from Xavier University, Wilberforce University, and the University of South Carolina Upstate.

CAU to Share $25 Million Cybersecurity Education Grant Vice President Joe Biden announced on Jan. 15 that Clark Atlanta University will share a $25 million grant funded by the Department of Energy for cybersecurity education with 12 historically black colleges and universities, two national labs, and a K-12 school district.

The initiative builds upon President Obama’s focus on the critical need to fill the growing demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals in the U.S. job market, while also diversifying the pipeline of talent in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. The consortium also highlights the administration’s continued commitment to HBCUs. “We are extremely grateful for the Department of Energy’s ongoing support of our University and for President Obama’s knowledge and understanding of the value and contributions of HBCUs to American life,” said President Carlton E. Brown. “At CAU, we are embarking on a new focus on research that will include undergraduate students to better prepare them for graduate work and various career choices, including addressing cybercrime.”

The rapid growth of cybercrime is creating a growing need for cybersecurity professionals across a range of industries, from financial services, health care, and retail to the U.S. government itself. By some estimates, the demand for cybersecurity workers is growing 12 times faster than the U.S. job market, and is creating well-paying jobs.

Student Wins National Nuclear Security Administration’s Grand Challenge CAU dual degree engineering student Tamera Green (right), CAU President Carlton E. Brown (left), and CAU professor Olu Olatidoye, Ph.D., pose with the first-place award from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City Plant Grand Challenge 2014, held recently at the NNSA Minority Serving Institutions Technical Meeting at Southern University of New Orleans. Green headed the team that won the “Grand Challenge Rocket Tail Competition,” which involved 13 participating schools. The challenge was to redesign a rocket tail and submit it as a 3D technical data package.

4

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

“

Founders Day is the time to be inspired by what we must do. Find something you are passionate about. Try something hard. Find mentors and role models. Be first and then you can be a role model for others,” Rice said in her remarks. “In my youth, my first passion was the piano.

Later, it shifted to international policies, Russia and diplomacy.

”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — 2015 Founders Day Orator Condoleezza Rice, Ph.D., the 66th U.S. secretary of state, delivered the University’s 2015 Founders Day Convocation speech on March 19. She also was awarded the Doctorate of Humane Letters honoris causa during the proceedings.

“Dr. Condoleezza Rice’s professional and civic record exemplifies the power of disciplined study, the irreplaceable value of lifelong curiosity and the impact of focused servant leadership,” said President Carlton E. Brown. “Her presence affirms that our institution continues to be a forum where global leaders exchange important ideas, continuing a level of discourse that is necessary for the intellectual and spiritual perpetuation of our institution’s great legacy.”

Rice is currently the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior

Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution; and a professor of political science at Stanford University. She is also a founding partner of RiceHadleyGates, LLC. From January 2005-2009, Rice served as secretary of state under President George W. Bush, and was the second woman and first African-American woman to hold the position. She also was the first woman to serve as national security adviser, a position she held from January 2001-2005.

Rice told the audience that a college education is not an entitlement, but a privilege, and responsibility comes with it. She urged them to think about the challenges their ancestors faced and to make an effort each day to make things better.

This year’s Founders Week observance also commemorated the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” the 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery,

Alabama. Rice is a daughter of Birmingham, Alabama, and “not unfamiliar with the tumult and violence that characterized so much of the movement,” noted Brown.

“That she has transcended those dark moments and risen to positions of leadership on the world stage speaks volumes about her intelligence, her wisdom, and her faith.”

Mellon Foundation Funds $100,000 Planning Grant CAU received a $100,000 planning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a new initiative to explore incorporating research in the undergraduate curriculum. The grant runs through November 2015 and will involve CAU’s social science and humanities faculty, as well as faculty from the science, technology, engineering and math disciplines.

The new program aims to ensure an even richer academic experience for CAU’s more than 2,500 undergraduate students

by pairing participating undergraduates with faculty mentors who will guide their research projects. In addition to formal presentations at an annual research symposium, the students’ work also will be published in a special, annual edition of Phylon, the social sciences research journal founded and originally published by former faculty member and administrator W.E.B. Du Bois.

“The expected outcome of this grant will be to implement a model framework

for undergraduate student research that is tailored to the unique challenges and needs of Clark Atlanta University,” explains the grant’s principal investigator, Obie Clayton, Ph.D., CAU’s Asa Ware Endowed Professor of Sociology. “We are looking forward to a productive year of rich, provocative and insightful conversations with other academic leaders from across the nation as we launch efforts to determine and refine best practices in this realm.”

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

5

UNIVERSITY NEWS CAU Competes in Honda Campus All-Star Challenge Nationals Completing a hard-fought journey that began in the fall, Marcus Dewayne Jones, Epiphany Storey, Ayanna Nicole Smith and Bryson J. Hudgins-Owens represented CAU at the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC) National Championship Tournament from March 21-25 in Torrance, California. Gwendolyn D. Morgan, assistant professor of English at CAU and team coach for 25 years, was there to cheer them on. The competition showcases the academic prowess of the best and brightest students from America’s HBCUs. The team made it into the competition’s “Elite 8.”

With 76 institutions vying for a spot in the Nationals, teams competed in seven qualifying tournaments held in late

January. Forty-eight emerged from the group, including Clark Atlanta, earning the opportunity to compete for the title of “National Champion” and a $50,000 institutional grant from Honda.

“We are grateful for the ongoing support from Honda and for our team’s

COURTESY OF THE CARTER CENTER

Former President Jimmy Carter Visits CAU

Former President Jimmy Carter on Feb. 13 delivered a keynote address on human trafficking at the University. He also signed copies of his most recent book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power. The event was sponsored

by Clark Atlanta University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs.

“Inviting a world-renowned leader of President Carter’s character and expertise advances the University’s plan to create multicultural discourse that precipitates local, national, and global action on 6

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

critical issues such as this one. We are honored to have him share firsthand his ongoing work in this arena,” said Luis Miletti, Ph.D., CAU dean of Multicultural Affairs, Carter, the author of 28 books, is an outspoken advocate against human trafficking. In A Call to Action, he addresses the abuse of women, in particular, calling it “the worst and most pervasive and unaddressed human rights violation on earth.”

“This historic visit,” Miletti added, “affirms and elevates our University’s commitment to eradicate violence against women. From our education and advocacy programs on dating and domestic violence to our campaigns against campus sexual assault, Clark Atlanta continues to crusade against these crimes. We are inspired and energized by President Carter’s work and invite the opportunity to learn from his wisdom and vast global experience.”

participation since the inception of this competition,” said Morgan. “Honda’s focus on highlighting and rewarding academic achievement is completely in line with our mission to produce some of the most talented high achievers who can compete with peers across the nation.”

Sonia Sanchez Peace Benches Dedicated CAU dedicated four peace benches in the name of the legendary poet Sonia Sanchez, honoring the legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois who served the University for 23 years as a faculty member, administrator, scholar, author, and social engineer.

The benches feature haiku poetry by authors Sanchez, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, John H. Bracey Jr. and hip hop superstar Common, among several others, as well as CAU professors Daniel Black, Ph.D., and Stephanie Y. Evans, Ph.D. Evans, chair of the Department of Africana Women’s Studies, African American Studies, and History, commissioned the benches. CAU art major Denisha Claxton is the art project director and also contributed a haiku.

“The power of the word to redefine the world and to redefine our thoughts about ourselves is paramount,” said CAU President Carlton E. Brown in remarks delivered at the event.

Four Students Named University Innovation Fellows by the National Science Foundation CAU students Ariel Rogers, Damon Willis, Aaron Chambers and Tiffany Mitchell in February were named University Innovation Fellows by the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter), a program of the National Science Foundation.

The program, which is directed by Stanford University and Venture Well, empowers 291 fellows at 114 U.S. higher education institutions to become agents of change. The fellows comprise a national community of scholars in engineering and related fields working to ensure that their peers gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to compete in the economy of the future. They advocate for lasting institutional change and create opportunities for students to engage with entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity, design thinking, and venture creation at their schools.

Individual fellows, as well as teams of fellows, are sponsored by faculty and administrators at their respective schools and selected through a biannual application process. Upon acceptance into the program, schools fund six weeks of online training and travel to the University Innovation Fellows Annual Meetup in Silicon Valley. Throughout the year, fellows take part in events and conferences across the country, learning from one another, Epicenter mentors, and academic and industry leaders.

“In today’s economy, it is imperative for all students to acquire an entrepreneurial mindset,” explains Humera Fasihuddin, co-leader of the University Innovation Fellows program for Epicenter. “College graduates need to enter the workforce skilled in assessing complex problems, conceiving innovative solutions and developing scalable solutions, whether they join a company, nonprofit organization or start a new venture.”

At this year’s annual meetup, which took place from Feb. 20-22, the fellows took part in immersive experiences at Google and Stanford University. They

participated in experiential workshops and exercises focused on topics that included movement building, student innovation spaces, design of learning experiences, and new models of change in higher education. The fellows also engaged with academic and industry leaders from Google, Google for Entrepreneurs, Stanford University and Citrix, among others.

“Participating in the University Innovation Fellows program gives us the opportunity to inculcate best practices from some of the top innovators in the world in creating a culture of innovation on our campus,” said David Duncan, director of CAU’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development. “We also will leverage our relationships with Google, Stanford, and other world-class organizations as we continue to build our center to ensure we are a thought leader and a national forum for educating successful, competitive participants in the new economy.”

Past fellows have created design spaces, founded entrepreneurship clubs and organizations, worked with faculty to design new courses, and hosted events and workshops. In the last academic year alone, fellows created 553 activities, 22 new spaces, and 65 innovation and entrepreneurship resources at their schools.

“Over the course of the program, we’ve seen fellows have a powerful impact on student engagement and campus culture at a national scale,” Fasihuddin said. “Word of their success has attracted more than 50 institutions for this new cohort. We’re thrilled to see the impact of the new fellows in the year ahead.”

Student Wins Award in Prostate Cancer Research Biology major and scholar Quentin Lloyd (right) poses with Marjorie Campbell, Ph.D., director of CAU’s Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement, at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference (ABRC) for Minority Students in San Antonio, Texas. Lloyd on Nov. 15 won an award for his presentation on the Regulatory Aspects of Defective Gap Junction Assembly in Prostate Cancer, which he completed during the summer at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

ABRC is one of the largest professional conferences for underrepresented minority students and students with disabilities

to pursue advanced training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

It is sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and managed by the American Society for Microbiology.

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

7

UNIVERSITY NEWS Rev. Jesse Jackson Leads University’s Bloody Sunday Remembrance The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, legendary civil rights leader and Rainbow PUSH Coalition founder and president, led Clark Atlanta University’s remembrance of Bloody Sunday on March 20, as part of this year’s Founders Week celebration.

In his remarks, Jackson reminded students that the fight for civil rights is far from over, as evidenced by ongoing barriers to the ballot box and persistent educational and economic inequities. But he also urged them to “keep hope alive.”

“You do not drown because water is deep, you drown because you stop swimming,” Jackson said. “Move forward by hope, not backward by fear.”

Longtime advocate and lieutenant to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson has played a pivotal role in virtually

every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice for the past 40 years.

On August 9, 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

In October 1997, Jackson was appointed

by President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to be a special envoy for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa. In 1991, he was elected to serve as a shadow senator of Washington, D.C., advocating for statehood for the nation’s capital and advancing the “Rainbow” agenda at the national and international levels.

Since then, he has continued to promote voter registration and lead get-out-the-vote campaigns, spearheading major organizing tours through Appalachia, Mississippi,

CAU Joins the Clinton Global Initiative University Network CAU is now one of more than 65 colleges and universities worldwide that are part of the Clinton GlobaI Initiative University (CGI U) Network. CGI U is a growing consortium of academic institutions that support, mentor, and provide seed funding to student leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs who are developing solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

CAU President Carlton E. Brown initiated the relationship, engineered the invitation to join and secured the initial $10,000 from Georgia Power Co. for the program with the strong support of Metro Atlanta Region Senior Vice President Walter Dukes.

The $10,000 will be divided among students who are selected to pursue their Commitments to Action at CGI U 2015 in five focus areas: education, environment and climate change, peace and human rights, poverty alleviation, and public health. Clark Atlanta University will also mentor student commitment-makers as they develop and implement their plans in the coming months.

Three Clark Atlanta student leaders will serve as the University’s inaugural commitment-makers through the iLead CAU 8

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

Program, “Each One, Reach One, Teach One,” a new initiative designed to address three major gaps in the local education system. Aaron Chambers, a sophomore computer science major from Beaumont, Texas; Walter L. Clark Jr., a senior criminal justice major from Milwaukee; and Alexis O. Cureton, a senior sociology major from Indianapolis, Indiana, will tackle the program’s multi-year agenda to increase among young African-American males in Atlanta’s South Fulton County community the graduation and college enrollment rates, and the number of AfricanAmerican males who pursue education as a profession.

According to CAU Vice President for Student affairs Carl Jones, improving education, environments and economies worldwide begins with, and must be bolstered by, local efforts. “We are immensely proud that these young men, under the supervision of Willie Todd, Ph.D., executive director for student affairs, have conceptualized a focused approach to enhancing the education of African-American males in our community and, in doing so, seek to engage more in becoming teachers,” he added.

C alifornia and Georgia.

He continues to be a leading advocate for a variety of public policy issues and has acted many times as an international diplomat in sensitive situations.

“Rev. Jackson has dedicated his life’s work to be at the vanguard for movements of social change, justice, and equality. He has earned the ear of U.S. presidents and international leaders as a conduit to give a voice to the voiceless, and we are grateful to have his presence on our campus, sharing firsthand with our students his unique, historical perspective,” said President Carlton E. Brown.

Art Galleries Opens “Beyond the University Art Annuals: Acquisitions from 1980-2014” The Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries on September 23, 2014, opened “Beyond the University Art Annuals: Acquisitions From 1980 to 2014,” which will run through May 29. The exhibition features a range of media and artists included in the University’s internationally renowned permanent collection.

In 1942, artist and professor Hale Aspacio Woodruff (1900-1980) created the “Exhibition of Paintings, Prints, and Sculptures by Negro Artists of America at Atlanta University” to offer AfricanAmerican artists a forum in which to share their work. This national, juried show, which later became known as the “Atlanta University Art Annuals,” ended in 1970 after 29 consecutive exhibitions. It played a significant role in helping emerging artists, prohibited by segregation and racial discrimination from showing their work around the nation, develop renowned careers.

Having one’s work acquired by the Clark Atlanta University Galleries became a prestigious honor that continues to this day.

Dr. John Hall Named Associate Vice President of Research, Sponsored Programs and Community Outreach John H. Hall, Ph.D., on October 30, 2014, was named associate vice president of Research, Sponsored Programs and Community Outreach. He will play a crucial role in forwarding the University’s research enterprise.

“We are extremely fortunate to have Harvard-trained scientist, educator, and researcher John Hall join our ranks,” Vice President James Perkins said. “His vast acumen transcends the laboratory. He has proven his ability to structure, accelerate and advance the course of innovation and discovery from within some of America’s most important research organizations.”

Hall, whose own research interests include theoretical studies of chemical bonding and experimental and theoretical studies of stratospheric ozone chemistry, previously served as the Bruce Raneur Professor of Natural Sciences and chair of chemistry at Morehouse College. He has also served as associate vice president for research and executive director of The Ohio State University Research Foundation, and as principle research scientist in the School of Earth and Atmospheric

Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

He brings to his new post at Clark Atlanta University considerable federal government experience, having served as a program director at the National Science Foundation in the Environmental Program to Stimulate Cooperative Research. As one of several program managers, he was responsible for the review and administration of grants for the development of educational and research infrastructure capability, the establishment of cyberinfrastructure, and the establishment of proper cyberinfrastructure connectivity.

Hall earned the bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Morehouse College, and the Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Harvard University, where he studied under Nobel Laureate William N. Lipscomb. Hall previously served as an adjunct professor of chemistry at Rice University, and his honors include service as a visiting professor of computer science at Rice University, visiting professor of chemistry at the University of Utah, and a Danforth Fellowship. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society.

The Du Bois Institute for Civic Engagement Presents Forum on Voter Participation CAU’s Du Bois Institute for Civic Engagement presented a forum on Nov. 14, 2014, that examined voter participation 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The oneday symposium featured various experts who explored topics such as new barriers to voting, voting rights violations, gerrymandering, and ways to increase civic participation.

“In 2013, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act was found to be unconstitutional, effectively rendered as moot in protecting voter rights,” said Obie Clayton, Ph.D., chair of the University’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and director of the Du Bois Institute. “Since then, many organizations and groups have argued that this decision has limited voter participation for many minority groups, when states and jurisdictions engage in documented discriminatory behaviors. Unfortunately, given these abuses, a fully functioning Voting Rights Act is still necessary to protect voters.”

CAU Trustee Delores P. Aldridge Serves as Grand Marshal of 2014 Homecoming Parade CAU trustee Delores P. Aldridge, Ph.D., was the grand marshal of CAU’s 2014 Homecoming parade on November 1.

In June, Aldridge, a double alumna, made two landmark donations to the University: a leadership gift of $150,000 and her academic papers, which will be housed at the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library. In October, the University named the auditorium in the Thomas W. Cole Jr. Research Center for Science and Technology in honor of Aldridge and her late husband Kwame Essuon.

Widely revered in academic circles, Aldridge earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology from Clark College in 1963 and a master’s degree in social work from Atlanta University in 1966. In 1971, she became the first African-American woman to receive the Ph.D. degree in sociology from Purdue University. That same year, she became the founding director of the first degree-granting African and African-American Studies Program at a major private university in the South, Emory University, as well as the first African-American woman to receive a tenuretrack faculty position there.

Aldridge served on the Clark College Board of Trustees and has been a member of the Clark Atlanta University Board of Trustees since the University’s consolidation in 1988. She is currently board secretary and chairs the Academic Affairs Committee.

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

9

UNIVERSITY NEWS The 2015 CLOSE the GAP Weekend Extravaganza Photos by Foxx Media Group The 2015 Close the Gap Scholarship Weekend Extravaganza (Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2015), an annual event hosted by CAU Trustee William Shack and his wife Jin Jin Reeves in Las Vegas, this year raised nearly $150,000 for deserving CAU Students. Held annually on the occasion of his birthday, a 72-years-young Shack entertained guests with a golf tournament, a birthday gala, a VIP performance of Hitzville: The Show, starring Reeves, and an exclusive, private Super Bowl watch party. This year’s event was made possible

by Title Sponsor Toyota Motor Sales Inc., with Chevron and the M Resort Spa and Casino serving as major sponsors.

The event also included a recruiting breakfast, at which top Las Vegas-area scholars got to meet one-on-one with Trustee Shack and President Brown.

The Close the Gap Scholarship Fund has helped more than 1,000 students since its inception in 2009. The “gap” is the account balance, typically between $300 and $5,000 that remains after a student has applied all other available resources toward the cost of his or her education.

Jim and Jackie Castillo head the Castillo Family Foundation, a loyal partner in the Close the Gap Scholarship Program since its inception.

10

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

More than 70 golfers from across the United States participated in this year’s tournament, with CAU’s Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs James Perkins, Ph.D., taking the top prize. Pictured from left to right are: Longtime Close the Gap supporter Mike Kennedy, commercial account manager for Citrix; Perkins; Eric Clark; and Los Angeles resident and CAU Grandfather Gene Johnson.

Close the Gap guests were treated to the award-winning revue, Hitzville: The Show, starring Jin Jin Reeves. The show is the only African-American-owned production currently on the Las Vegas Strip and this year celebrates its tenth anniversary.

Vincent Shack (left) joins his father CAU alumnus and Trustee William E. Shack Jr. as they prepare to hand out trophies during the post-tournament lunch at Revere Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada.

CAU Received $250,000 Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded to Clark Atlanta University a $250,000 grant to conduct research that advances the safe and environmentally responsible use of fossil fuels, while providing educational and research training opportunities for minority students.

“This grant will be a significant catalyst to support our ongoing research in developing new revolutionary chemical adsorbent materials, namely metal organic framework structures, for the efficient capture of the primary greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide,” said Conrad Ingram, Ph.D., principal investigator and CAU associate professor of chemistry. “There is currently an urgent need to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere from power plants, as elevated levels of this greenhouse gas have an adverse effect on global climate.”

The Department of Energy issued grants to three historically black universities under its Support for Advanced Fossil Resource Utilization Research program.

In addition to CAU, Delaware State University and Prairie View A&M University will participate in the project.

CAU Panther Won Five SRPI Awards The CAU Panther won five awards at 64th Annual Southern Regional Press Institute (SRPI) hosted by Savannah State University on February 19 - 20.

The Panther took home Outstanding Sports Writing, Outstanding Editorial and Column writing, 2nd Place Outstanding Editorial and Column Writing, 2nd Place Outstanding Feature Writing, and Outstanding College Newspaper (mediumsized university).

This year’s theme was “Stepping Up, Stepping Out: Entrepreneurial Media in a Digital World.”

CAU Now Offers Ph.D. in Humanities The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), has approved the conversion of CAU’s Doctor of Arts degree in Humanities (D.A.H) to a Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) in Humanities, effective spring 2015.

When students currently enrolled in the D.A.H. program have graduated, the University will phase out the D.A.H. and offer the Ph.D. in Humanities degree. Students currently enrolled in the 60-credit-hour D.A.H. program will be able to complete their degrees as initially planned, or may complete additional hours to qualify for the 72-credit-hour Ph.D. degree.

“This important programmatic transition aligns the D.A.H. program with CAU’s 10 other Ph.D. programs and represents the University’s desire to address the demands placed upon scholars, researchers, and the professoriate in today’s higher education arena,” said CAU President Carlton E. Brown.

Researchers Join Partnership with American Process Inc. and Futuris Automotive CAU researchers joined in a partnership Nov. 18, 2014, with American Process Inc. and Futuris Automotive to develop ultra-strong, lightweight automotive components using nanomaterials from trees to replace heavy steel structures in cars.

These nanocellulose materials promise to be an economical substitute for expensive carbon fiber composites used in luxury automobiles.

The goal of the project is to replace heavy steel structures within cars, such as the seat frames, with advanced reinforced polymers that have cost parity with traditional materials, which is good news

for consumers and the environment. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, reducing a vehicle’s weight by just 10 percent can improve fuel economy by six to eight percent.

“Clark Atlanta University is a leader in the field of nanocellulosepolymer matrix composites research and development,” said CAU chemistry professor Eric Mintz, Ph.D., head of Clark Atlanta’s High

Performance Polymers and Composites Center.

“We have a long history of developing advanced materials including nanostructured composites supported by NASA, the Department of Defense and the USDA Forests Products Lab, another partner in this venture.”

Academic partners in the venture are Georgia Institute of Technology and Swinburne University of Technology.

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

11

FACULTY FORUM Stephanie Y. Evans, Ph.D., chairman of the African American Studies, Africana Women’s Studies & History Department, presented three invited lectures on “Healing Traditions of Black Women’s Writing”in Spring 2015 at Texas Southern University, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and for the Bonner Office of Community Service & Student Development at Spelman College. In addition to her regular teaching, she instructed four students from the Atlanta Public Schools Gifted and Talented Program in a semester-long research internship course on women’s history and hosted participants in the youthSpark mentoring program for a “college student for a day” campus tour and lecture. Dr. Evans also chaired an SOS-Calling All Black People author panel with Professors Sonia Sanchez, John Bracey, and James Smethurst and dedicated the Sonia Sanchez Peace Benches to Clark Atlanta University as part of Founder’s Week.

“SOS—Calling All Black People,” author panel at CAU: Professors Sonia Sanchez, John Bracey, and James Smethurst.

APS Gifted and Talented Students with AUC Woodruff staff and CEO Loretta Parham.

Sonia Sanchez and John Bracey at the W. E. B. Du Bois bust.

Nsenga Burton, a visiting professor of new media and journalism, published in The Root: What Lucious Lyon has Taught Terence Howard About the Man He Can Be” and “American Crime Creator John Ridley Talks About the Controversial Heart.”

communications law at Clark Atlanta University since 2006, discussed the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s awarding-winning coverage of the Michael Vick dog fighting trial and the more frequent intersection of professional sport, and the law.

Felicia Mayfield, Ed.D., director of Field Services and Partnership Relations in the School of Education, was the featured speaker at the Georgia Professional Standards Commission Luncheon in December on the topic of EdTPA, a new state-mandated teacher performance

Mass Media Arts Department adjunct professor D. Orlando Ledbetter, J.D., spoke on the sports law panel at the 24th annual Georgia Bar Media and Judiciary Conference. The February event was hosted by the Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia. Ledbetter, who has taught 12

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

assessment. The event was held in Macon, Ga., at Middle Georgia College, December 3, 2014. Mayfield also presented at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education’s 67th annual conference held February 27-March 1, 2015.

The presentation was on the implementation of EdTPA using Tuckman’s Group Dynamics as a backdrop.

Mayfield was a co-presenter at the fall CAEP Conference held in Washington D.C., of a presentation titled Linking The Assessment of Candidate Performance to the State Teacher Effectiveness System.

Charmayne E. Patterson, Ph.D., an instructor in the Department of History, attended her fourth and final session of the Higher Education Resource Service (HERS) Institute at Wellesley College and graduated from the prestigious program.

For the past six months, she has represented Clark Atlanta University among a cohort of 60 women from colleges and universities across the country.

Robert E. Mickens, Ph.D., Distinguished Fuller E. Callaway Professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, was honored in September 2014 by the Simon A. Levin Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center (SAL-MCMSC) at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, which has launched a “Brauer-Mickens Distinguished Seminar Series” in recognition of his “stellar scholarly contributions to the mathematical, engineering and natural sciences, spanning many decades, and support for SAL-MCMSC and overall service and mentorship to the applied mathematical sciences community.”

Mickens also has delivered several invited presentations, most recently: “Exact Finite Difference Schemes for the Cauchy-Euler Equation: Application to the Black-Scholes Equation,” 2015 Joint Mathematics Meetings; San Antonio, TX; January 10, 2015; “Ideology (Masquerading) as Science: The Laffer Curve,” 2015 Georgia Academy of Science Meeting; Milledgeville, GA; March 15, 2015; and “A Comparative Analysis of Single

Population Growth Models,” American Mathematical Society Meeting (#1109), University of Alabama – Huntsville, AL; March 27, 2015.

Mickens is the co-author of three peerreviewed journal articles and the author of Difference Equations: Theory, Applications,

and Advanced Topics, 3rd edition (Monographs and Research Notes in Mathematics, Chapman and Hall, New York, 2015).

ISBN: 478-1-4822-3078-9.

Curtis D. Byrd received funding for his proposal, “Innovative Strategies to Diver-

sifying the Professoriate: Resources for Graduate Enrollment Management Professionals.”

Byrd is the Senior Associate Director of Graduate Admissions at Clark Atlanta University, and a Doctorate of Education candidate at University of Georgia.

Thank You! We Appreciate Your Support.

When you sacrifice and contribute to the CAU annual campaign, your participation makes a difference in the lives of students who aspire to achieve a Clark Atlanta University degree.

Your participation and experience affirmed that the need for scholarships to help close the gap for students’ tuition, housing and books is very real. Last year alumni, friends, and endowed funds supported 1,772 students with awards averaging $3,888.00; however, we are reminded that 96 percent of our students struggle to pay for their education because the financial gap is extensive. Your continued support can make a difference in whether or not a student returns to campus or more important graduates from CAU next year.

As we approach the end of the school year, we ask for your help for unrestricted and scholarship support to make CAU an even greater institution.

Give a gift that keeps on giving.

Make your gift online today at www.cau.edu.

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

13

Meet

President-Elect Ronald A. Johnson, Ph.D.

T

he Clark Atlanta University Board of Trustees on March 31 concluded its nationwide search for the institution’s fourth president with the announcement of Ronald A. Johnson, Ph.D., as the historic university’s next leader. Johnson, who currently serves as dean of Texas Southern University’s (TSU) Jesse H. Jones (JHJ) School of Business, will assume this new role on July 1, succeeding Clark Atlanta’s current President Carlton E. Brown, Ed.D., who will retire on June 30.

Johnson, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., earned the B.A. in economics and the MBA in finance from Adelphi University. He earned the M.A and the Ph.D. degrees in economics from Stanford University. His professional success tracks through some of the nation’s foremost investment organizations, including Smith Graham & Company, where he managed assets totaling $3 billion, and Templeton Worldwide, where he managed assets totaling $2 billion. His love of education, teaching and research, and his reverence for the nation’s HBCUs in particular, have kept him close to academic circles for much of his career, which includes leading two schools of business as dean and named professorships at some of the nation’s most respected institutions of higher education.

CAU Board Chairman Alexander B. Cummings Jr., executive vice president and chief administrative officer for The Coca-Cola Company, says “in Ronald Johnson, we have identified a scholar of tremendous intellect, a global financier with impeccable credentials, an institution-builder with a demonstrable record of successes, a fundraiser with highly developed

14 CLARK CLARKATLANTA ATLANTAUNIVERSITY UNIVERSITYSPRING SPRING 2015 2015

CAU President-Elect Ronald A. Johnson, Ph.D., and First LadyElect Irene Oakley Johnson pose in front of Harkness Hall. The couple already has reached out to the CAU Community, asking for insight from faculty, staff, students and alumni. To share yours, go to: Insight4Johnson@cau.edu

strategic acumen, and a compassionate role model whose obvious desire to engage and empower students is borne out of his own personal journey. I am honored to have Ron and his wife, Irene, become part of the CAU family.”

CAU Trustee Joe Laymon, vice president for human resources at Chevron Corp., led the Board’s 12-member Presidential Search Committee, supported by Washington, D.C.- based, AGB Search. “Our search was intentionally broad,” he notes. “We carefully reviewed more than 100 applications from across the United States. Our fundamental qualifications for the position were rooted in the University’s strategic plan, the realities of the current economic climate, the prevailing legislative environment and the increasingly competitive global student recruitment marketplace. One candidate, Ronald Johnson, consistently stood out during the intensive, very detailed vetting phases of the process. He possesses the skill, experience, and vision necessary to provide the leadership and focus required to elevate Clark Atlanta and reposition it in the international arena.”

Johnson says he is eager to join the Clark Atlanta University community and begin his term as president. “There are few institutions in the United States, HBCU or otherwise, with the rich dual history, the intellectual legacy, and the tradition

“There are few institutions in the United States, HBCU or otherwise, with the rich dual history, the intellectual legacy and the tradition of scholar-activism that defines Clark Atlanta. of scholar-activism that defines Clark Atlanta,” he said. “Now the University will look to its future, harnessing a tremendous wealth of academic talent, a nation-wide expanse of passionate, multigenerational alumni and opportunities to create strategic alliances that will elevate its competitive advantage.”

Johnson emphasized that he and his wife are a team. “Irene and I want to be a part of the exciting efforts to sustain the relevancy and vibrancy of Clark Atlanta University as a premier institution of higher education and learning,” he added. We are looking forward to becoming part of the CAU community that is inspired by social purpose and fueled by intellectual vitality, cultural diversity, and global awareness.”

New President’s Leadership, Skills the Right Match for Elevating CAU As the JHJ School of Business dean and full professor of finance since 2011, Johnson is intricately familiar with the rigors of the academic enterprise and, more important, how to sustain and strengthen connections between the academy and strategic partners to create substantive, relevant opportunities for students and faculty. Under his leadership, the school in 2014 was listed as one of The Princeton Review’s 295 best U.S. business schools, and GetEducated.com listed its eMBA programs as one of the best online buys. In 2015, U.S. News & World Report listed the school as one of the best graduate schools. Prior to serving as dean of the JHJ School of Business, Johnson was dean of the Western Carolina University College of Business in Cullowhee, North Carolina, where the MBA program was included in The Princeton Review’s “Best Business Schools” in the nation, and its online master’s degree program in project management earned GetEducated.com’s distinction as the

Left: CAU Alumni Association National President Marshall Taggart welcomes the President-Elect and First Lady-Elect during the March 31 press conference. Alumni representing various generations attended to welcome the new University’s new leadership.

Center: CAU Alumnus and U.S. Congressman Hank Johnson at the March 31 press conference for the University’s President-Elect.

Right: First Lady-Elect Irene Oakley Johnson addresses the crowd.

Now the University will look to its future, harnessing a tremendous wealth of academic talent, a nation-wide expanse of passionate, multigenerational alumni, and opportunities to create strategic alliances that will elevate its competitive advantage.”

— President-Elect Ronald A. Johnson, Ph.D.

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITYSPRING SPRING2015 2015 15 CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

nation’s top-ranked online prowell as The Federal Reserve System gram in quality and affordability.

Board of Governors in Washington, The school’s online master of entreD.C. He has developed investment preneurship program in 2007 was strategies, informed economic and ranked one of the five best online financial policy decisions, consulted entrepreneurship programs in the heads of government and their nation. administrations on macroeconomic Johnson built his career around policy adjustments, and led business teaching, mentoring, and prepardevelopment teams to more than 25 ing future leaders in the investforeign nations during his career. ment, global financial management, “Clark Atlanta,” Johnson international business, portfolio and observes, “has done a commendsecurities analysis, economics and able job in sustaining itself over banking arenas, serving with disthe past decade. Despite serious tinction for two decades as BB&T economic turbulence nationwide, Distinguished Professor of Capitalcompounded by constricting fedism and professor of finance, Westeral regulations and financial aid ern Carolina University; JP Morgan support, the University has manChase Professor of Finance, Texas aged to retain its enrollment of Southern University; visiting associnearly 3,500, making it the largest ate professor of finance in the School of the nation’s UNCF 37 member of Business and Industry at Florida institutions, as well as the largest Top: President-Elect Johnson elaborates on a point A&M University; assistant professor among its affiliated United Methodwith Atlanta Journal-Constitution education reporter of finance, Northeastern University; ist Church Global Higher EducaJanel Davis. and visiting assistant professor of tion Ministries HBCU institutions.

Bottom: Board Chairman Alexander Cummings economics, Howard University.

I look forward to working with our officially welcomes CAU’s President-Elect As Clark Atlanta reinforces its to the University. talented faculty, dedicated staff, and capacity to prepare for the Univerengaged students to produce the sity’s first comprehensive capital next generation of global leaders, fundraising campaign, Johnson’s credentials and corporate pioneer research and craft innovation that touches the lives leadership experience will prove invaluable in articulating the of millions of people. By reinvigorating our business model, University’s assets and positioning the institution as a solid we are going to realize strategic advantages that will result in investment. He served as president and chief investment offi- increased enrollment, enriched bases of graduate and undercer of Smith Graham & Company, an institutional investment graduate research, strengthened student support programs, management company in Houston, Texas, where he managed and increased external funding support. These systemic com$3 billion in assets. Prior to joining Smith Graham, he served ponents, once effectively and operationally interconnected, as director of global fixed income research and senior portfolio will ultimately define the brand of this great institution.” manager for Templeton Worldwide Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, “Today, we see in our midst a university that is poised to Florida, where he oversaw assets valued at $2 billion. Johnson be a leading model for the 21st century in teaching, learning, also served as the chief strategist and chairman of the invest- and world-class research. Our aim,” he adds, “is for the ment committee for Americas Trust Bank in Miami, world community to see, embrace and share in Florida; division chief for domestic financial markets the awesome mix of inspiration, value creation, with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and as an and leadership that continues to be the mark of economist with the International Monetary Fund, as distinction for Clark Atlanta University .” n

16 CLARK CLARKATLANTA ATLANTAUNIVERSITY UNIVERSITYSPRING SPRING 2015 2015

PANTHER PERSPECTIVE

“There are lots of colleges and universities, but few as special as Clark Atlanta University. As an aspiring pediatrician, it means a lot that I didn’t have to wait until I was a junior or senior to delve into the research stream. I began working with world-renowned scientists my freshman year. What I also appreciate about my CAU experience is that the work I do is firmly rooted in a level of social and economic consciousness that ties what I learn in the classroom to what needs to be done in the communities I one day plan to serve.”

“That brand of activism didn’t begin with me. It began with faculty members like W. E. B. Du Bois and Whitney M. Young Jr., and alumni like Marva Collins and Pernessa C. Seele.

Every day I walk in their footsteps.

Those are big shoes to fill, but the support I receive from my professors gives me the confidence I need to step into any situation and ‘find a way or make one’.”

Zoe McDowell, Sophomore Biology Major and Honor Student

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

17

Photos by Curtis McDowell

Founders Day

Dr. Rice delivers the convocation oratory to a crowd of more than Photos

by Jay Thomas 1,000, including alumni and friends of the institution. Behind her is the University’s acclaimed Philharmonic Society.

2015  Dr. Rice, President Brown and Board Chairman Cummings pose with CAU’s student leadership prior to the Convocation. From left to right are: senior class president Onya Hankins, Miss CAU Chelsi Glascoe and CAU Student Government Association’s Undergraduate President Faron Manuel.  CAU Board Vice Chairman Greg Morrison and his wife, Debra Morrison, pose with Dr. Rice as she prepares for the line of march into the Founders Day Convocation.

18 CLARK CLARKATLANTA ATLANTAUNIVERSITY UNIVERSITYSPRING SPRING 2015 2015

Jesse Jackson Commemorates Bloody Sunday, Friday, March 20 This year’s Founders Week included a keynote address in commemoration of Bloody Sunday, the gruesome March 21, 1965, attack upon civil rights marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. In his remarks, Rev. Jackson instructed the audience not only on the history of Bloody Sunday, but on measures necessary to ensure that hard-won rights remain intact for future generations.

 Walter Clark, a senior criminal justice major, gave a rousing introduction of Rev. Jackson, recalling the intensity of the movement and the marchers who propelled it in 1965 Selma, Alabama.

 CAU’s 2015 Founders Day Convocation Orator Condoleezza Rice, Ph.D., speaks with Georgia Power Foundation President and CEO Mike Anderson prior to the start of the University’s Founders Day Breakfast.

 Dr. Rice poses with the President and members of the University’s Executive Cabinet. From left to right are: James Perkins, vice president for Research and Sponsored Programs; Lucille Maugé, executive vice president and CFO; Robert Clark, chief compliance officer; James A.  From the left: CAU Board Chairman Alexander Hefner, Ph.D. (AU, ‘63), provost and B. Cummings Jr. (MBA, AU ‘82) and Mrs. Teresa vice president for Academic Affairs; Cummings (CC, ‘78; AU, ‘82) join Dr. Rice, CAU and Trisa Long Paschal, vice presiPresident Carlton E. Brown and CAU Board dent for Institutional Advancement Secretary Delores P. Aldridge, Ph.D., (CC, ‘63; AU ‘66) and University Relations. at the University’s Founders Day Breakfast.

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITYSPRING SPRING2015 2015 19 CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

Preparing Today’s Students for Tomorrow’s Careers

How

STEAM

By Frank McCoy Photos by Jay Thomas

creates more than hot air at CAU

I

n spring 2015, Clark Atlanta University President Carlton E. Brown and interim provost James A. Hefner opened the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development (CIED), an academic facility that aims to provide students with 21st century career opportunities. Classes at CIED begin next fall.

CIED is a collaboration of the president’s office, the Division of Research, School of Business, and a group of STEM, arts and design, and business faculty members. It will integrate science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines with the liberal arts to create STEAM, and foster an immersive campus culture of innovation.

Dr. James Perkins, vice president for CAU Research and Sponsored Programs, says the CIED is a catalyst for personal and career growth. Each CAU school’s participation in the center will inspire students. They will then innovate and use technology to transform ideas into goods and services in ways that distinguish CAU graduates positively in the marketplace.

David Duncan, a serial entrepreneur and former director of Startup Atlanta who has connections to the local and national innovation ecosystem, will serve as the center’s director. He says CIED will provide a dynamic physical space to promote CAU as a pioneering research university.

“There has been buy-in from students, faculty, and the administration, and the support from the top has been phenomenal. We prepare students to be better product managers with a big picture perspective and experience working in multi-disciplinary teams. Our goal is to better prepare students for the new economy,” Duncan says.

An Association of American Colleges and Universities survey released in 2013 highlighted this approach. It reported that private sector recruiters prize students with multidisciplinary skills who also display “critical thinking, complex problem-solving, written and oral communication, and applied knowledge in real-world settings.”

20 CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY SPRING 2015

ď‚ƒ David Duncan (right) with Dean Charles Moses (left) in CAU’s New InnoLab ď‚‚ VP of Research and Sponsored Programs, James Perkins, Ph.D.

VP James Perkins meets with strategic partners from Boeing

Those are CIED goals. All CAU students are welcome at the center and will be introduced to its four-part, human-centered design thinking process: Inquiry, Collaboration, Creativity, and Implementation.

In a collaborative team-based approach, CAU faculty and corporate, civic, and institutional speakers and partners will guide students through complex real-world challenges. Professionals from different disciplines will also interact with faculty and students, and the latter will meet businesspeople that will serve as team mentors.

In this digital age, the University knows that the arts, history, and computer science majors are equally likely to collaborate on developing a web site or an app. Thus, next fall every CAU student, regardless of major, will be expected to take at least one computer programming class.

Funding for the CIED is being cultivated, and Perkins says the attraction for grant givers is how CIED activities are cross cutting by design.

“We anticipate hundreds of students to be involved and are aiming for 50 percent of them to be involved in a CIED activity before graduation in the next five years,” he says.

At the CAU School of Business, Charles T. Moses, interim dean and faculty director for CIED, addressed the center’s curriculum and expectations, which he says represent a future model of American education by razing silos of information and integrating disciplines.

Next fall, the University will offer two CIED undergraduate classes and one graduate class. Courses will count toward any academic requirement as an elective and will be worth one credit.

CAU will accommodate the increased courseload by reducing the number of core classes that students are required to take.

At CIED, students will develop their ideation muscles, hone concepts, test them using a lean market-driven startup model, and search for customers. By the academic year’s end, says Moses, the marketing of student ideas should be the norm.

22 CLARK CLARKATLANTA ATLANTAUNIVERSITY UNIVERSITYSPRING SPRING 2015 2015

Sophomores can take a business education design class that has no prerequisite. Seniors will attend a second semester class that requires them to develop and present an abstract of the entrepreneurial activity under consideration. Graduatelevel CIED courses will contain more advanced material, and require an abstract presentation connected to one of CAU’s four schools.

Moses adds there must be rigor in its approach to transform ideas into action, and CAU will walk it, not just talk it.

Early in their academic careers, students will be expected to engage in intense reflection about choosing a major and what that choice will mean to and for them.

Such synthesis is the foundation of CIED’s strength, and executive support for a multi-disciplinary STEAM major is already trending.

Looking forward optimistically, the University is setting up an intellectual property regime, and CAU will have a stake in whatever is invented on campus.

Professor Christopher Hickey, Ph.D., Art Department chair and Sophomore fashion design major Jerrica Gant look over a work by senior psychology major/art minor Khylia Ray. The latest installation, made completely of tape, graces the hallway of Park Street Church, the University’s current home for the arts.

While students will be graded, the significant attribute of the CIED experience is what classroom insight they carry into the work world.

“There is a power and a value in innovation and that is what we want to capture at CAU. We must provide students with multiple streams of opportunity as they will likely change jobs and perhaps even careers to be successful working for themselves or others,” says Moses.

Christopher Hickey, a long-time professor of art gets CIED, and likes it. The center will be a promoter for seeing beyond academic silos, investigating what different departments are doing, and seeing linkages. The fundamentals of creative thinking required to create good prints, drawings and digital imagery can be transferred to 21st century innovative and entrepreneurial developments.

“I enjoy working with individuals who love what they do and during my interactions with the center and the STEM

faculty they have all expressed a passion for research and teaching. Students pick up on this very quickly and have already expressed a desire to get involved,” says Hickey.

“We are developing promising research opportunities by engaging chemistry, biology, engineering, and computer science. Are ‘bio-couture,’ 3-D printed apparel, and nanotechnology used in textile science, new wine in old bottles?

I don’t think so.”

Author and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in his best seller, The World Is Flat, that “more than ever our secret sauce comes from our ability to integrate art, science, music, and literature with the hard sciences. That’s what produces an iPod revolution or a Google.”

STEAM is not a vaporous or abstract notion. It is a launch pad for students and alumni to soar and have their ideas take flight. Clark Atlanta University’s motto is “I’ll Find a Way or Make One,” and the University’s newest academic iteration is based upon the same approach. n

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITYSPRING SPRING2015 2015 23 CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

By Frank McCoy

CAU Curriculum Changes

Set

A NEW PATH Collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity rule

C

lark Atlanta University’s leadership knows that in this era of the Internet of Things, it is wise, and a service to students and faculty members, to unite liberal arts and STEM. Next fall, CAU will unveil a new innovation- and entrepreneur-oriented, multi-disciplinary curriculum.

Dr. Obie Clayton, the Asa Edmund Ware Chair in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, says the University believes the best way to instill students with competitive career advantages is to ensure that they graduate with 21st — not last century’s — skills.

A campus-wide initiative will combine classroom experiences with undergraduate research. We want to expose students to the research process as early as their freshman year, elevating their engagement and mastery throughout their college careers.

Of course, we want students to have external experiences; however, our goal is to ensure that the experiences they first have on campus will assure them a competitive advantage in pursuing relevant market experiences in the form of internships earlier in their matriculation.

Retiring CAU President Carlton E. Brown and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs James A. Hefner place 24 CLARK CLARKATLANTA ATLANTAUNIVERSITY UNIVERSITYSPRING SPRING 2015 2015

this high-impact practice at the top of the University’s strategic agenda, which is being supported by a $100,000 Mellon Foundation planning grant for the institution’s undergraduate research initiative.

Lock-step curriculum changes gird the process. Previously, a workshop suggested to faculty members how to incorporate research into their curriculum. Another component is to prepare students to present their research at conferences and then share the experience with classmates.

In 2015, there are few CAU majors where students can excel without engaging in some aspect of technology. That is why, Clayton says, the University promises to graduate students who know how to use technology in ways complementary to their discipline.

To encourage campus engagement, next fall CAU will hold an undergraduate research symposium, which seeks to be an annual event, and will feature student research presentations from each academic department.

To see how CAU liberal arts students and the STEM disciplines may interrelate, Clayton says that Clark Atlanta administrators and faculty visited the undergraduate research centers at Emory University and Georgia Tech and the Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech, and were impressed by

 Cynthia Parks, J.D.  Asa Edmund Ware Chair in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Obie Clayton, Ph.D.

 Computer and Information Science department Associate Professor Khalil Shujaee, Ph.D., looks on as Asanga Aranpth Mudyandage (center) and Zhaoxuan Zhang (right) adjust a newly designed robot.

how their science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) student teams collaborate.

Events outside university walls will also be watched for their multi-disciplinary relevance and research applicability.

One example, Clayton relates, is the burgeoning need for digital goods and services to complement the links between mass communications and health care. To meet such needs, CAU is committed to helping students become collaborative, problem-solvers, and critical thinkers with polished tech and communications skills.

Cynthia Parks is the founder of Parks Wood, an Atlanta intellectual property (IP) law firm that works with the CAU Division of Research’s Technology Transfer Office to advise the University and protect IP generated by students, faculty members, and other researchers. “As a research institution that is also heavily devoted to business, entrepreneurship and creativity, part of CAU’s mission is to promote and develop activities that lead to innovation and invention, and to disseminate knowledge. In its effort to do so, CAU protects IP generated by using its resources, as well as the public and private grants made to the University,” Parks says.

The next iteration of CAU’s IP policy is already in process, and understanding what it means and what is at stake is important.

Anticipating this issue, Parks says that Clayton’s fellow supporter of the STEAM curriculum, CAU’s vice president for Research and Sponsored Programs, Dr. James Perkins, has commissioned a series of “Intellectual Policy 101 sessions” to inform students and faculty about the opportunities, realities and responsibilities associated with IP in general, and the CAU IP Policy in particular.

“It will be hard for students and faculty who are most involved in innovation to avoid getting that information,” she says.

CAU’s IP policy is consistent with those of other research universities. Parks says that the best way to ensure that promising innovation gets protected and disseminated is to ensure that the IP is controlled by CAU as the entity that can take the action necessary to protect and position it for commercialization or other use. That is critical as there are certain steps that cannot be taken in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office unless taken by the owner of the IP. Clayton is confident that CAU is ahead of the curve in these matters. He also says that it should not be difficult to convince liberal arts students that a STEAM-related academic background is just what attracts public, private, or nonprofit sector employment recruiters. n CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITYSPRING SPRING2015 2015 25 CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

Full

STEAM

Ahead

Building a Better Graduate

"Because I have had the benefit, albeit the early manifestations, of a STEAM-based academic experience, I feel confident and prepared to enter the market as a leader who is ready to make substantive contributions to an organization, my community and the economy."

TRADITIONAL APPROACH HISTORY 

ENGLISH 

COMPUTER SCIENCE 

MATH 

COLLEGE DEGREE

The traditional approach to higher education customarily concludes with a college degree.

In an economy in which African-American unemployment is approximately 10.4 percent (higher than the national rate of unemployment) and where 15.4% African Americans who are unemployed have college degrees, as well as the fact the less than 2% of employees among technology giants like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Intel are African American, the traditional approach is no longer an economically or socially feasible approach to producing corporate and citizen leaders.

26

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

M A R KE T P L A C E

Aaron Chambers, Sophomore Computer Science Major

STEAM APPROACH FOUNDATION

DISCIPLINE

APPLICATION

 Science  Empathy  Capstone (Research  Engineering  Creativity Project)  Arts  Story Telling Experience  Math  Team  Research and Dynamics  Physics Internships  Business  Industry Best  Computer Practices Science

The STEAM approach to higher education produces graduates who have the advantage of a wellrounded college experience built upon a traditional approach to education that is undergirded and infused at critical touch points with industry research, competitive market insight, experiential learning based upon actual corporate culture and comportment. This affords students the opportunity to develop into market-savvy graduates who not only understand his or her field of study, but also are practiced in navigating the 21st century global economy to ensure that the solutions they create are relevant and intelligently niched across cultures and populations.

I

n an effort to strengthen and elevate its stature as a dynamic 21st century research university with a global campus population, Clark Atlanta University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development seeks to create a seamless, immersive culture of human

centered design thinking, innovation, and entrepreneurship which spans and engages each of the University’s four schools, encompassing 38 distinct areas of graduate and undergraduate study. Our goal is to serve as the

juncture at which the platform for market intelligence and thought leadership are connected through focused inquiry, diverse and creative thinking, cross-functional collaboration and precise implementation of breakthrough solutions that meet the social and economic needs of specific populations.

We believe that by preparing students to align their contributions to society with these rigorous standards and thought processes, organizations and industries benefit from sharper, people-focused, economically sensitive leadership that anticipates and drives market forces, rather than succumbs to them. The CIED serves as a connective portal through which external audiences can participate in graduate and undergraduate courses, lectures, colloquia, training opportunities and other educational activities centered upon innovation and entrepreneurship.

For more information on Clark Atlanta University’s approach to STEAM in higher education, and how you can partner with us, scan here.

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

27

Partner Spotlights

C

CAU Guild Hosts 22nd Annual Jazz Under The Stars Concert

lark Atlanta University’s Jazz Under the Stars Concert series has over the past two decades become a rite of spring. This year’s program did not disappoint.

Two-time Grammy-nominated saxophonist and flutist Najee headlined the 22nd Annual Jazz Under the Stars Benefit Concert Saturday, May 2, before a sold-out crowd on the lawn of Harkness Quadrangle, after conducting a private master class for selected CAU music majors. Atlanta-born Kathleen Bertrand, a vocalist whose fan base spans the globe, opened the concert, along with the CAU Jazz Orchestra.

Jazz Under the Stars was established 28

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

in 1992 by the CAU Guild as a vehicle to raise scholarship funding for the University’s performing arts students.

To date, the organization, which comprises some of Atlanta’s most influential women, has raised more than $2 million in scholarships.

A native New Yorker, Najee has made a career following his passion and keen intuition by pushing musical boundaries that have made him an international pioneer in the music industry. He has collaborated with many acclaimed artists, including: Prince, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan and Herbie Hancock. Najee’s technical agility, grace, compositional prowess, and fear-

less genre bending have made him one of the most sought-after musicians of his generation. With two platinum and four gold albums under his belt, he is an icon whose musical vision spawned an entire new genre by fusing the music close to his heart, R&B and jazz. An alumnus of the New England Conservatory of Music, Najee was mentored by jazz giants Frank Foster and Jimmy Heath, as well as classical maven and flutist Harold Jones of the New York Philharmonic.

The event’s 2015 Presenting Sponsor was UPS. Platinum sponsors were Delta Air Lines and The Atlanta JournalConstitution. n

Partner Spotlights

T

Toyota Provides Key To Driving Down CAU’s Carbon Footprint

oyota Motor Sales Inc. on Feb. 20 presented a new Prius PlugIn Hybrid to Clark Atlanta as part of its Toyota Green Initiative (TGI). TGI is an environmental stewardship platform designed to educate historically Black Colleges and University students and alumni on the benefits of personal and organizational sustainability. According to the Building Green Initiative, a UNCF initiative that, through the organization’s Institute for Capacity Building, promotes sustainability, green construction and design and energy efficiency into minority serving institutions’ building projects, CAU is one of the top-five greenest HBCUs. At a brief ceremony during which he turned over the keys to the vehicle

to CAU President Carlton E. Brown, Toyota Motor Sales Vice President for African-American Business Strategy Jim Colon said, “Clark Atlanta continues to emerge as a leader in sustainability education and advocacy. We are confident that this vehicle will be put to good use and, as such, will allow the University to reduce its carbon footprint.”

CAU’s Associate Vice President for Business Services Bonita Dukes said that the car will allow for the execution of routine campus operations, from repurposing green space on campus and in the community, to transporting recyclables, to be completed much more efficiently. “This is exciting,” Dukes said, “not only because we will be able operate more effectively, but also because we will

now have another ‘living demonstration’ of sustainability for our students. Our overall goal in all that we do is to ensure that in addition to producing leaders in their academic and professional fields, we also produce responsible citizens who fully embrace sustainable lifestyles.”

Clark Atlanta’s Sustainability Committee, led by Charles Richardson, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the University’s School of Business, promotes a campuswide agenda that closely aligns to Toyota’s Green Initiative Promise: protecting the environment for the benefit of this generation and generations to come; improving individual and collective impact on the environment by reducing the amount of resources consumed, reusing as much as possible; and recycling on a daily basis. n

CAU Trustee Jim Colon, vice president for African-American Business Strategy for Toyota Motor Sales Inc. presents the keys to a new Prius Plug-In Hybrid to CAU President Carlton E. Brown. Joining the presentation are CAU Trustee Alvin Trotter, M.D. (second from right) and CAU Associate Vice President for Business Services Bonita Dukes.

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

29

Student Spotlights Austin Casillas By Joyce Jones

By Dav id Lindsay

Driving It Through the Goal Posts

I

t would have been easy enough for junior biology major and Panther football player Austin Casillas to try to cruise through his studies, but he prefers a challenge. Not content with just earning good grades, he believes it’s more important to push himself, which is why he enrolled in CAU’s honors program the second semester of his freshman year.

“I appreciate how the honors program challenges you to work even more on content,” says the Mesa, Arizona, native. “There is a deeper discussion in class,” he adds, which makes him more determined to resist the temptations of Atlanta, one of his most favorite cities, so he can focus instead on hitting the books back in the dorm.

So far, his diligence has paid off.

As often happens in undergrad biol30

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

ogy programs at universities around the nation, the number of students from his freshman class who have stuck with the major is a fraction of what it was when he arrived in 2012. Casillas, however, has a nearly perfect academic record – all As, except for a B he received in physics.

“If I continue to get As in the rest of my courses,” Casillas quips, “I’m going to re-take that physics class!”

Casillas’s mother is a nurse practitioner, which has influenced his desire to become a doctor. The Biology Department’s faculty and staff have definitely helped him stay on track toward that goal. “They look out for you,” he says.

Last year, Jacqueline Ryder, a senior staff assistant in the department, approached Casillas and asked if he had an internship lined up. The department worked a few connections and,

before long, Casillas had applied for and secured a twoyear, paid internship researching endometriosis at Emory University Hospital and at the Morehouse School of Medicine.

The research lab and classroom are not the only places where Casillas demonstrates his will to achieve. A soccer player throughout his childhood, he became a field goal kicker when he joined his high school football team in ninth grade and set a school record for longest field goal. The year he graduated, Casillas and another football player in the state tied for scoring the most points in Arizona’s largest high school football conference.

The Panthers were eager to get Casillas, as the team had lost its only kicker and punter. He had to learn how to punt, but as difficult as that was, the bigger challenge has been keeping his position through a couple of coaching changes. Typically, coaches prefer to fill their teams with players that they recruit, and Casillas is grateful that the CAU Athletics Department has honored his original scholarship offer.

Besides, his over-and-above work ethic as a student-athlete isn’t easy to replace. “I have good grades and I show up early for practice,” he says. n

Student Spotlights Alycia Attaway

By Matthew Scott

Excellence in the Face of Adversity

E

arning good grades when both of your parents are gravely ill is no easy feat. Throughout her father’s illness and subsequent death during her sophomore year in high school, Alycia Attaway maintained a 3.6 GPA. Then, at the end of her senior year, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. The dire news made becoming the first person in her family to go to college even more significant.

“My parents being sick motivated me more,” Attaway says, and she turned that motivation into a four-year, full scholarship at Clark Atlanta University.

Being in Atlanta while her mother battled her illness in Wetumpka, Alabama, “was really tough,” she says. “But knowing that I was making her proud kept me focused -- and I phoned home every day.”

A business administration major with a concentration in marketing, Attaway has compiled a 3.9 GPA, earned two paid internships at Fortune 500 corporations, and was selected for a threeweek course studying entrepreneurship in Spain this summer. In addition, her future after graduation in May is secure.

Attaway has been offered a job as a corporate manager at Ford Motor Company that will begin after she graduates in May. She attributes her success to her parents and grandparents stressing the importance of education, aiming for a 4.0 GPA, and establishing positive rela-

tionships with CAU professors who have mentored her outside of the lecture hall.

Attaway received three internship offers last year after they alerted her to opportunities and then endorsed her as a great candidate.

“The professors really care about you and there are so many opportunities at CAU,” she says, including regular visits to the University by corporate recruiters.

In 2013, Attaway spent the summer interning with Lowe’s as an assistant to the manager. One of her tasks was to help improve customer service and she devised a plan to measure how comments on social media impacted customer satisfaction inside Lowe’s stores. “[The interns] got an opportunity to go to corporate and present our ideas to top executives and to meet the CEO,” she says.

Lowe’s execs liked her idea and work performance so much, she has continued working for the home improvement company during the past two academic years.

Last summer, Attaway excelled as a

Ford Motor Company marketing and sales intern in the Orlando region, where she managed two customer service projects, an Internet sales project, and a social media project at four dealerships.

Each dealership had different needs and she gained invaluable experience working with regional-level executives to solve sales and marketing problems.

Once again, her performance was so impressive that Ford offered her a postgraduation, full-time position as a zone manager. She will be responsible for handling similar, but larger, sales and service projects like the work she did for multiple dealerships as an intern.

As Attaway prepares for commencement, the 22-year-old rejoices in the knowledge that her mother, whose cancer is in remission, will see her graduate with honors from a respected business school that has prepared her for a corporate career and possibly entrepreneurship later in life.

“I don’t think that I would have had the same opportunities at another school,” Attaway says. n CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

31

Student Spotlights Danica Nestor

By Joyce Jones

Doing Well By Doing Good

A

dvocacy is Danica Nestor’s middle name. Well, not really, but it should be. Born in Haiti and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Nestor always knew she wanted to be in a helping field.

She initially considered following in her mother’s footsteps as a nurse, and started off in that discipline as an undergraduate at Florida Atlantic University.

Then, she took an elective sociology class and everything changed — including her major. “I just fell in love with the class,” Nestor recalls. “And I realized that social work would allow me to help people in a broader way because it also gives me a chance to be a lot more creative.”

Clark Atlanta University, she surmised, was for a variety of reasons the best place to earn a graduate degree in social work. The program has an outstanding reputation and opens the door to key internships. She also wanted to learn in an environment that emphasizes a “more Afro-centric and community based approach where we’re working together for the betterment of everyone.”

Nestor also had a more personal reason. A cousin whom she’d always looked up to is a CAU alum, “and every time he came to visit he seemed wiser and more intelligent. So something about CAU really intrigued me.”

In addition to being exposed to local professionals in the field, she interned last year in the Atlanta Public School System working with elementary and high school students, and this year at Emory University Hospital.

When people think about children and social workers, Nestor says, they typically think about children being taken out of their homes. But working in

32

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

a school setting quickly opened her eyes about what a safe haven it is for kids, particularly these days when so many are dealing with adult issues, and in some cases practically raising themselves.

“Making it a safe place for them gives me joy,” says Nestor, who graduates in May. “The kids come to school not only to learn but they also feel safe and welcome and I was happy to provide that for them. And because I looked like them they opened up to me.”

Interning at a hospital was a very different experience, though equally rewarding. At first her biggest obstacle was to get adult patients to take her seriously because of her relative youth. Her responsibilities have centered on ensuring the patients access all of the necessary resources they will need post-discharge.

“Insurance barriers can be challenging, but as a social worker you have to get creative, find resources, network with people and you end up securing resources for the patients. It’s so rewarding to see someone who came in distraught leave happy and satisfied, knowing that you played a part in that,” Nestor says.

Her desire to help others extends to her fellow students as the Student Government Association graduate school president. “Because of my passion for advocacy, when I came to CAU I wanted to be more involved and to have a voice on campus,” Nestor says. “I was a new student and decided, ‘Hey, why not? I’m going to run for president and make it happen.”

And she did. Nestor was surprised by how seriously and intensely students on an HBCU campus take their elections. In addition to campaign materials, her opponent had a manager and a team of about seven or eight volunteers compared to her team, which consisted of herself and one friend. Still, she prevailed, despite a “very tight” race. Since then, Nestor has learned a lot about procedure and protocol and has honed both her communication skills and ability to make things happen.

She and her vice president have started a graduate student alliance that enables students to share their experiences and collaborate on community service and other projects. She also was able to negotiate a technology upgrade for the SGA office.

Nestor hopes to continue working at Emory after graduation, but is already thinking about her long-term goals. She hopes to build the women’s empowerment club she started as an undergraduate into a national organization. “I’d also like to work with black males,” Nestor says. “A lot of people are afraid to work with them in my opinion, and I’d like to start a mentoring nonprofit just for them.” n

Student Spotlights Ahmed Alkhaldi

By Erin E. Evans

Changing Places

B

efore moving to the United States in May 2012, Ahmed Alkhaldi was a teacher-turned-educational supervisor in Sakaka, Saudi Arabia. Ready to move up the ranks in the Saudi educational system, he saw a route to a promotion by earning a master’s degree through a scholarship program headed up by the nation’s Ministry of Education.

The teacher quickly became the student.

Alkhaldi and his wife, Asas, packed and headed overseas with their four children to pursue their dreams. After completing an 18-month program to learn English at Kennesaw State University, Alkhaldi enrolled at Clark Atlanta University in January 2014 to earn a master’s degree from the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership.

“I actually was scared in the beginning. English is a second language for me,” Alkhaldi said. “But it has been an amazing experience at Clark Atlanta. I get a lot of support from my professors and my classmates. They made it easy for me to pass classes and learn in the classroom and outside of the classroom.”

While learning the ins and outs of the American education system, he was also able to share with his teachers and classmates stories about his teaching and leadership experiences with the Saudi school system. There is no Title I and Title II legislation there, and education is open to all through college. Now in his third semester at Clark Atlanta, Alkhaldi says he is most grateful for the strong teacher-student relationships at the University. His professors have been

“very patient, helpful and much more caring than in Saudi Arabia.”

Alkhaldi, 39, and his wife, Asas, live in Kennesaw, Georgia, with their children, who are 12, 11, 9 and 6. He admits that the transition was rough.

For the first year, the family had the help of an Arabic translator. Their children attended school, and quickly learned English. Now without the extra translating help, Alkhaldi says his kids have become mini-teachers for him, too.

“They’re better than me in English now!” he says with a laugh, proud of the progress that they made in such a short time.

Alkhaldi looks forward to returning to his country after graduating in the fall, to apply his new leadership skills to his higher level job. He’s been missing his parents and extended family back home — as well as Saudi cuisine. And although he will soon leave the United States, he’s appreciative of the opportunity to experience life abroad.

“I know it’s a dream for many people to live in the United States,” he said.

“I wanted to live this dream. And I’ve learned that nothing is impossible in this life.” n CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

33

Alumni Spotlights Lewis Wooten

CAU STEM Grad’s Career Takes Orbit

34

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

NASA

G

rowing up in South Georgia in rural Grady County, Lewis Wooten spent many summer days playing baseball in open pastures or working for local farmers tending peanut and vegetable crops. One historic week in July 1969 changed all that.

“All my friends were out playing ball and wondering where I was,” Wooten says. “I was inside, riveted to the television, watching humans explore the surface of the moon. My universe got a lot bigger that day.”

The Whigham native set a new goal for himself: join NASA and be part of the group exploring the universe. He achieved that goal 11 short years later when, soon after earning a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Atlanta University in Georgia, now known as Clark Atlanta University, he drove through the front gates as a new employee of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

He spent the next 35 years helping pursue scientific discoveries. In the 1980s, Wooten served as an engineer and payload operations director on Spacelab missions, a self-contained lab that flew in the cargo bay of the space shuttles and served as an early model for the International Space Station. He was the flight director of the Chandra X-Ray Telescope in the 1990s, coordinating the technical and science operations teams for the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope.

In the new millennium, Wooten managed the avionics integration for NASA’s Space Launch System, the country’s new

rocket designed to take astronauts farther into space than ever before.

Earlier this month, NASA assigned Wooten a new challenge, naming him to the Senior Executive Service position of director of the Mission Operations Laboratory at the Marshall Center. He will oversee more than 500 civil service and contractor employees analyzing and developing flight and ground support systems including managing the around-the-clock science operations on the International Space Station.

“I’m constantly reminded by the new people who arrive here at NASA just how exciting it is to be a part of the space program,” Wooten said. “I experienced it myself as I drove onto the center my very first day, and I want to continue assembling a team that will help rewrite textbooks and enable discoveries that will expand our knowledge of our world and our universe.”

Wooten will manage the staff and facilities of the Payload Operations Integration Center, the command post

for all space station science and research activities. The position is a Senior Executive Service appointment, which is the personnel system covering most top managerial and policy positions in the executive branch of the federal government.

“I look at this new challenge as a giant puzzle,” Wooten said. “People and projects are the individual pieces and my job is to help make them all fit together. We have a responsibility to push the boundaries of exploration and

I just want to contribute my piece to the puzzle as well.”

Wooten holds a bachelor¹s degree in mathematics from Fort Valley State University in Georgia and has earned numerous awards with the space agency, including a NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership, a NASA Medal for Exceptional Achievement, a Director’s Commendation Award, a NASA Certificate of Appreciation, a Marshall Certificate of Appreciation, and many group achievement and special service awards. n

Lewis Wooten, new director of the Mission Operations Laboratory at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages operations in the Payload Operations Integration Center — the command post for all science and research activities on the International Space Station.

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

35

Alumni Spotlights Chloe Poston

By Joyce Jones

By Joyce Jones

Pivoting Off the STEM Pipeline

I

ntuition and logic are key components of the scientific mind. It’s no wonder, then, that after one visit to the Clark Atlanta University campus during her high school sophomore year that Chloe Poston (B.S. ‘07) instinctively knew that CAU was the right place for her. The logistics kicked in later.

First, CAU was one of a few HBCUs that offered a chemical engineering degree that didn’t involve partnering with another institution. Then, Poston, a small cohort of other students from the tour program who also wanted to attend CAU, and their parents met with Dr. Isabella Jenkins, who at the time was the head of CAU’s Honors Program.

“We drove to Atlanta with the tour leader and met with Dr. Jenkins, who reassured our parents that we’d be okay in a larger city,” the Monroe, North Carolina, native explained. “She encouraged us to join the Honors Program and helped us identify summer programs that we could participate in between graduation and [freshman year] to ease the transition. That’s what really sealed the deal for me.”

36

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

Once on campus, Poston changed her major to chemistry, a decision she’s never regretted. Students in the department formed strong bonds with each other and their professors, but most important, they were offered opportunities to participate in research projects from the start.

“Most people aren’t allowed in a lab until junior or senior year. I think our professors were on the lookout for students who were talented and had an interest in research. They reached out to [us], saying ‘Try this out; see if you like it,’ versus us having to seek opportunities,” said Poston, who went on to earn a master’s and Ph.D. in chemistry at Brown University.

Nurturing interest in the STEM fields is an imperative for the United States, particularly among women and minorities who are woefully underrepresented. Through CAU’s chemistry club and the National Society of Black Engineers, Poston tutored underclassmen and participated in community outreach efforts such as science fairs and visits with high school

students to try to spark an interest in them in STEM. Part of the reason it’s such a challenge, she explains, is that it is unusual for black children to meet scientists who look like them.

“Even on television it’s rare to see a person of color doing science on a show.

We have to create some level of identity, something they can relate to,” says Poston. “Kids are more likely to want to pursue or think about careers in which they see people who look like them, which is why a lot of little boys want to be [athletes].” Indeed, she is a prime example of the disparities in her field.

While working at Eli Lilly and Company in the biological mass spectrometry group, Poston was both the only woman and the only African-American in the group to hold a Ph.D. She recently hung up her lab coat to serve as a science and technology policy fellow at the National Science Foundation, where she’s working on a five-year strategic plan that focuses on scientific communication and broadening participation in science to help increase the workforce but also prepare graduate students for the growing number of corporate jobs that are available as positions in academic settings stagnate.

“One of the biggest things for me is the ability to see an impact from my work. Doing research was fun and interesting, but it can take 20 years before you see the real fruits of your labor or before anyone who’s not a scientist will actually recognize the work you’ve done,” Poston says. “I like the idea that what I’m doing here directly impacts anybody related to the science field and can immediately see it.” n

Alumni Spotlights Alysha K. Thompson

By Joyce Jones

Fashioning Harlem’s New Runway

A

lysha K. Thompson (B.A. ‘13) has always had a passion for fashion.

It began when as a little girl she was allowed to choose her own outfits; was extended to her Barbie doll collection, for whom the Grand Rapids, Michigan, native designed a line of clothing; and was in full bloom when she began to work and shop at the local mall, where she studied the offerings and imagined how she might have executed them differently.

At her parents’ request, Thompson, the first in her family to earn a college degree, completed her freshman year at a local university, in part because she was still 17. She would then be free to transfer to an out-of-state university.

CAU, while not the obvious choice for some people striving to work in the fashion industry, offered everything Thompson was looking for: a fashion design and merchandising degree in an HBCU setting.

“I wanted a fresh outlook and to be taught by people who looked like me, who would impart knowledge I’d never learn at a predominately white institu-

tion,” she says. “And being able to study both design and merchandising, I really got the best of both worlds.”

While at CAU, Thompson discovered she was more interested in merchandising than design, “because I’m about organization and planning” and she also enjoyed the mathematical components, such as allocating funds and calculating profit and loss.

But no matter where one’s interest lies, fashion is a notoriously difficult industry to break into, forcing many who aspire to work in it to stretch beyond their limits of their creativity and think outside the box. Or, as every Clark Atlanta University student learns, find a way or make one.

That’s exactly what Thompson did when she secured a virtual internship about seven months ago with Harlem’s Fashion Row, a social company that is opening doors for designers of color to present their collections to key industry leaders. Her responsibilities have included helping to coordinate Fashion Week events in New York and Los Angeles; developing marketing strategies;

creating publicity for events on HBCU campuses; and administrative duties.

Each day at 8 a.m., she joins the HFR team for a conference call to discuss projects and logistics.

“That’s the amazing thing about technology. You can be across the world, and still getting things done,” she marvels.

The internship has been a remarkable experience, enabling her to work with industry veterans like Harriette Cole and Bravo Network’s “fashion queen” Bevie Smith – all the while working fulltime in Atlanta as a human services and executive administrative assistant at Swissport, a global cargo services firm.

“I make it work because this is something I want to do and these are skills that I want to hone,” Thompson says, adding that the HR director she reports to is one of the best bosses ever.

When she was working on the preparations for the Los Angeles fashion event, for example, he urged her to attend in person and is always willing to give her a day off to pursue her dreams, something he wishes he’d been able to do when he was starting out.

But Thompson does a lot more than dream. She has started a YouTube blog called “Alysha Talkz” and is developing an online driving app. She also hopes to one day produce her own television talk show and of course, open some clothing boutiques.

“I have lots and lots of ideas,” she laughs. “Maybe too many.” n CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

37

Alumni Spotlights

By Joyce Jones Maurice Slaughter

Cruising to New Heights

T

he Atlanta University experience has for Maurice Slaughter (M.B.A. ‘84) been a gift that has never stopped giving. Slaughter, the first African-American to own a Harley Davidson dealership, grew up on the campus of Louisiana’s Southern University, where his parents taught. He attended the university’s Laboratory School from K-12, and earned an undergraduate degree in computer science there.

“It was more of a comfort thing and an easy transition,” Slaughter explains.

“I had been going up to the campus for high school, so I just continued to go up there to go to college.”

But when the time came to choose a graduate school, Atlanta University was the place Slaughter wanted to be. His brother, Ronald, had earned a master’s and a Ph.D. in political science at AU, so it was familiar territory, and his daughter, Tiara, recently earned an M.B.A. at Clark Atlanta.

“We are a CAU family,” he laughs.

One of the things that he appreciated most about the School of Business was its student-professor ratio, which enabled his instructors to really get to know him and his strengths. Dr. Ed Davis, for example, he says, “recognized that I wasn’t a corporate guy but knew I had strong ambition and an entrepreneurial drive.”

As Slaughter prepared for graduation, Davis and other professors provided invaluable support as he filled out applications and developed marketing 38

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

plans or franchise opportunities. When some of his Kappa brothers tried to convince him to put his aspirations aside for the night to attend parties, Slaughter was undeterred.

His fortitude was well rewarded: Davis made a call to Herman Cain, a top executive at Burger King, and before the ink was dry on his M.B.A., Slaughter was in business.

“That’s what I mean by the uniqueness of that school,” he says. “Here I was a young kid with an interest, and the teachers spent time making sure I did it right.”

His Burger King franchise was in Kansas City, Missouri, which also was home to General Motors and Ford plants.

Slaughter eventually sold his Burger King franchise and entereed Ford’s dealer training program and ultimately became a partner in Pensacola Toyota.

Then, in 1997, Harley Davidson came calling.

Slaughter had never even ridden a motorcycle, but it was an “ideal proposition” in which demand far exceeded supply. Today he owns dealerships in Virginia and North Carolina.

Despite his innate ambition and drive, Slaughter attributes much of his

success to Atlanta University, where he learned to believe that there were no limits on what he could achieve. In gratitude, he has given back to the institution in myriad ways, including getting Harley Davidson to recruit there and make financial donations; organizing charity rides; and returning to campus to meet with and inspire students at the Business School.

Slaughter, who over the years has given very generously to CAU, also has made a commitment to donate generously in the next five years. In addition, he’s challenging every other alum — present and future — to give back with the understanding that no gift is too small. If they make an annual donation for five years, he reckons, they will develop the habit that will lead to a lifelong commitment.

He rejects the notion that he has been generous given “how that degree and the experience of going to AU has multiplied my income,” and he wants every other alum to also think in those terms.

“When I was in school, someone helped me. We owe a debt to the University to be able to help and other students achieve as we’ve achieved,” he says. n

FOUNDATION SPOTLIGHT

Scholars Inspired by the Lettie Pate Whitehead Story More than 50 students, supported by a generous gift of $350,000 from the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation, gathered for a “meet and greet” on March 24, 2015, with executives from the Foundation. The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation has a long-standing relationship with Clark Atlanta University focused on aiding ‘Christian girls and women’ among other initiatives. According to Carrie Davis Conway, Senior Program Officer, the Foundation supports 10,000 eligible students in the nine states encompassing Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,

Seated in front of the Lettie Pate Whitehead scholars at CAU are from left to right: Lizzy Smith, Grants Program Director and Carrie Davis Conway, Senior Program Officer.

South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

After introductions, the CAU students expressed their appreciation to the Foundation and their amazement by the extraordinary life of Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans, as told

by Lizzy Smith, Grants Program Director. Lettie Pate Whitehead, a young mother of two boys, “had to assume management of the business in the early 1900s after the death of her husband Attorney Joseph B. Whitehead, one of the original bottlers of Coca-Cola, she explained. She was a generous philanthropist and an accomplished businesswoman.”

The executives from the Foundation shared that the Clark Atlanta University “meet and greet” was the largest gathering of Lettie Pate Whitehead scholars experienced by the Foundation.

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY SPRING 2015 39

PANTHER PERSPECTIVE

“My years at CAU have allowed me to expand and refine my love for the arts, African and African-American art, in particular, while simultaneously affording me the opportunity to enrich my own understanding of our world through the lens of history. I can honestly say that CAU has helped form and inform my world view.”

“So many people think that you have to be older to share your life experiences, but I was encouraged to share mine here at CAU. Having the CAU Art Galleries as a backdrop, I have been able to help people see past the canvas, past the paint and look into their own lives and circumstances. I truly feel empowered for having been entrusted with that responsibility. But what’s most important is that I have fully embraced that this will continue to be my responsibility, not just as an adult, but as an activist, a thinking member of society and as a nation builder.

In light of the increase of white police officers using deadly force against unarmed black men and women, the University looked to the student leadership to formulate its response. There was a lot of pain, but I appreciate that CAU gave us a platform to work through that pain and engage the underlying issue.

It was an opportunity to say that Black Lives Matter and, more important, Black Minds Matter. I am committed to using my education to help others in my community embrace that ideal and empower themselves.”

CAU Student Government Association Undergraduate President Faron C. Manuel, Class of 2015 History Major and Honor Student

40

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

SPRING 2015

Clark Atlanta University Learn.

Lead.

C h a n g e t h e Wo r l d !

Clark Atlanta University, one of the nation’s foremost research universities, as well as one of the nation’s largest Historically Black Colleges and Universities, affords young scholars a vibrant, diverse campus community, faculty and staff who nurture and inspire students’ ambitions and a vast array of learning and service opportunities that broaden horizons and create innovative pathways to global leadership.

Located in the historic heart of Atlanta, Ga., our 3,500 students enjoy the cachet of a private education alongside classmates from around the world, all engaged in academic and research pursuits at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels in 38 exciting areas of study. Our students can participate in more than 80 campus organizations, from NCAA athletics to forensic debate.

We invite you to become part of a tradition of excellence that spans nearly 300 years of history.

At Clark Atlanta University, you will not only find your place in history, you will become part of the emerging class of leaders who shape and create it.

Become Part of Panther Nation!

• Call 404-880-6605 or 1-800-688-3228.

• Email us anytime at cauadmissions@cau.edu • Visit our historic campus: 223 James P. Brawley Dr., SW, Atlanta, GA 30314

CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY Office of Alumni Relations Box 743 223 James P. Brawley Drive, S.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30314

Address Change Service Requested

“The thing that I have loved most about Clark

Atlanta University is how someone is always willing to help you, to teach you at every level. I learned so much in the classroom, but I also learned from staff advisors, from classmates and from mentors both on- and off-campus, from resident assistants to corporate executives. You can’t separate those experiences out, because the power of CAU is that they all come together to make you who you are, to make you stronger. I can’t wait to give back to Clark Atlanta, because I know that my connection to CAU will be the hand I have in making someone else strong, the way that CAU has strengthened me.”

Miss CAU 2015-16 Chelsi Glascoe, a senior sociology major from Prince George’s County, Maryland, enjoys a quick bite in between classes. The support of young alumni like Chelsi helps secure CAU’s ability to forge STEAM ahead, stronger than ever.

To strengthen your connection to Clark Atlanta, go to invest.cau.edu