Kalamazoo College is a private liberal arts college in Kalamazoo,Michigan. Founded in 1833 by Baptist ministers as the Michigan and Huron Institute,Kalamazoo is the oldest private college in Michigan. From 1840 to 1850,the institute operated as the Kalamazoo Branch of the University of Michigan. After receiving its charter from the state in 1855,the institute changed its name to Kalamazoo College.
Pomona College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont,California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925,it became the founding member of the Claremont Colleges consortium of adjacent,affiliated institutions.
Raleigh Stanton Hales,Jr. is an American mathematician and educator,specializing in combinatorics. He was named president of The College of Wooster in 1995,and retired from the College in July 2007. Prior to his appointment as president,he served as vice president for academic affairs at Wooster from 1990 to 1995. He was also a professor in the department of mathematics and computer science. Since 2007,he has been a senior consultant affiliated with Academic Search,Inc. (DC).
The Institute for Citizens &Scholars is a nonpartisan,non-profit institution based in Princeton,New Jersey that says it aims to strengthen American democracy by "cultivating the talent,ideas,and networks that develop lifelong,effective citizens". It administers programs and fellowships that support civic education and engagement,leadership development,and organizational capacity in education and democracy.
Eileen Strempel is an operatic soprano,author,higher education policy expert,and academic from Syracuse,New York,who is currently the inaugural dean of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Strempel’s scholarly work advocates for college transfer students—and both access to and support for higher education—and the works of historically underrepresented composers.
Jewel Plummer Cobb was an American biologist,cancer researcher,professor,dean,and academic administrator. She contributed to the field of cancer research by studying the cure for melanoma. Cobb was an advocate for increasing the representation of women and students of color in universities,and she created programs to support students interested in pursuing graduate school.
Pardis Mahdavi is an American scholar and former president of University of La Verne. Previously,she was the provost and executive vice president of the University of Montana,the dean of social sciences at Arizona State University,acting dean of Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver,and the dean of women and chair of anthropology at Pomona College.
Cecilia Ann Conrad is the CEO of Lever for Change,emeritus professor of economics at Pomona College,and a senior advisor to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She formerly served as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Pomona College and previously oversaw the foundation's MacArthur Fellows and 100&Change programs as managing director. She holds a B.A. Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. Her research focuses on the effects of race and gender on economic status.
Yolanda Theresa Moses is an anthropologist and college administrator who served as the 10th president of City College of New York (1993–1999) and president of the American Association for Higher Education (2000–2003).
Lilian Burwell Lewis,(1904–1987) was an American zoologist known for being the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate degree from the University of Chicago and for her research in gonadogenesis. On November 8,1960 she was elected to Winston-Salem Forsyth County School Board where was an advocate of equity and desegregation. She campaigned for equal treatment of children during a time of De Facto segregation.
Gina Gabrielle Starr is an American literary scholar,neuroscientist,and academic administrator who is the 10th president of Pomona College,a liberal arts college in Claremont,California. She is known for her work on 18th-century British literature and the neuroscience of aesthetics. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship,an NSF ADVANCE award,and a New Directions Fellowship from the Mellon Foundation. From 2000 to 2017,she was on the faculty at New York University. In 2017,she became the first woman and first African-American president of Pomona College. Starr was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020. In 2024,she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
The Thomas J. Watson Foundation is a charitable trust formed 1961 in honor of former chairman and CEO of IBM,Thomas J. Watson. The Foundation's stated vision is to empower students “to expand their vision,test and develop their potential,and gain confidence and perspective to do so for others.”The Watson Foundation operates two programs,the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and the Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship.
Jean Emily Fairfax was an American educator,civil rights worker,community organizer,and philanthropist whose efforts have focused on achieving equity in education,especially for poor African Americans. She served as Director of Community Services of the NAACP from 1965 to 1984.
Julia Chinyere Oparah,formerly Julia Sudbury,is a faculty member at the University of San Francisco. She is also the founder of the Center for Liberated Leadership in Oakland,California. Oparah is an activist-scholar,a community organizer,and an intellectual focused on producing relevant scholarship in accompaniment to social justice movements. She has worked at University of California - Berkeley,University of Toronto and Mills College prior to the University of San Francisco.
Omayra Ortega is an American mathematician,specializing in mathematical epidemiology. Ortega is an associate professor of mathematics &statistics at Sonoma State University in Sonoma County,California,and the president of the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM).
Gary R. Kates is an American historian who specializes in the European Enlightenment and the French Revolution. He is the H. Russell Smith Foundation Professor of History at Pomona College in Claremont,California. He previously served as the dean of the college from 2001 to 2009.
Folakemi Titilayo Odedina is a Nigerian-born scientist and professor of pharmacy and medicine at the University of Florida. She is the principal investigator for the Prostate Cancer Transatlantic Consortium (CaPTC),a clinical research group using genomic science and environmental etiology to exploring disproportionate burden of prostate cancer among Black men funded by the NCI. She is a member of American Cancer Society's National Prostate Cancer Disparities Advisory Team.
Jill Spencer Grigsby is an American sociologist whose areas of expertise include demography and sociology of the family. She is an emerita professor of sociology at Pomona College in Claremont,California.
Janice A. Hudgings is an American physicist and educator whose research interests include optics and semiconductor devices. She is the Seeley W. Mudd Professor of Physics at Pomona College in Claremont,California.
Jean Brosius Walton was an American academic administrator and women's studies scholar. She spent the bulk of her career at Pomona College in Claremont,California.
