Edwards-Evans promoted, joins president’s cabinet
Dr. Nicole Edwards- Evans, promoted to vice president for Enrollment Management and Institutional Research, joins the president’s cabinet. She oversees enrollment management, institutional research and assessment, accreditation and JSUOnline.
Previously, Edwards-Evans served as associate provost for Institutional Research, Planning and Enrollment Management in which she was instrumental in pushing JSU to a record enrollment of more than 9,500 students.
White, named interim VP, joins president’s cabinet
Dr. Mary M. White has been appointed interim vice president for Institutional Advancement and is a member of the president’s cabinet.
White oversees and leads Alumni and Constituency Relations, the Center for University-Based Development, Community Engagement, Department of Events, the JSU Development Foundation, Metro Jackson Community Prevention Coalition, University Communications and the Welcome Center.
She is the inaugural chairperson and associate professor of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Professional Development in the College of Business.
Skelton appointed director of DSEI
Dr. Gordon Skelton has been named director of Data Sciences, Engineering and Intelligence in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology.
The new post brings together CSET areas of interest throughout the campus.
Skelton, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has directed CSET’s Center for Defense Integrated Data at the Mississippi e-Center@ JSU since 2005.
Hayes-Anthony heads Mass Communications
Dr. Elayne Hayes- Anthony, who served as director of the Department of Mass Communications in the 1990s, has returned to the position. She comes from Belhaven University in Jackson where she had served as professor of communications and chair of the Department of Communications since 1998.
A native of Jackson, Hayes-Anthony was the first African-American female to serve as a news anchor on WJTV-Channel 12 in Jackson.
Blaine Undergraduate Studies and CyberLearning dean
Dr. Robert Blaine is the new dean of Undergraduate Studies and CyberLearning.
Blaine, special assistant to the provost for CyberLearning and associate professor of music, has served as interim associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, among other duties.
He has blazed a trail in the university’s incorporation of online learning and is an Apple Distinguished Educator.
Blaine and a team of other JSU faculty and staff launched the 2012 iPad Technology Advantage that equips freshmen with iPads. The program also tracks student progress.
Azevedo named dean of Liberal Arts College
Dr. Mario Azevedo has been named dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
Azevedo served as interim dean, College of Public Service, which includes the School of Health Sciences, School of Social Work and School of Policy and Planning, from 2009-2013; as acting dean, College of Public Service, in 2008, and as interim associate dean, School of Health Sciences, 2007-2009.
He came to JSU in 2006 from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he had served as chair and Frank Porter Graham Professor in the Africana Studies Department, College of Arts and Sciences.
Azevedo also had worked in the JSU Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He earned a Ph.D. in history at Duke University in 1975.
Leggette named to HBCU Advisory Conference Board
Dr. Evelyn J. Leggette, associate vice president for Academic and Student Affairs, has been named to the College Board’s HBCU Advisory Conference.
The century-old College Board is a nonprofit organization designed to expand access to higher education.
Leggette will work with other members of the board on the academic affairs side of the HBCU conference in setting topics that will be of interest to department chairs, vice presidents and presidents on how to improve and work together on the issue of student success. Members of the advisory panel are selected from the academic, financial aid and enrollment communities from member institutions of the College Board.
Humanities Council recognizes band director
Dowell Taylor was recently honored with a Mississippi Humanities Council Teacher Award.
Taylor is assistant professor of music and director of the nationally renowned Sonic Boom of the South marching band. He has served as director since 2012. He also served in that capacity from 1984-1992.
In accepting the award, Taylor spoke on “The Arts: A Struggle for Survival.”
Calhoun honored for ‘dedication to teaching’
Dr. Thomas Calhoun, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts, has won The Mid-South Sociological Association’s Distinguished Career Award.
The award was presented at the 2014 MSSA Conference in Mobile, Ala.
A sociology professor, Calhoun was selected because of his “tireless dedication to teaching,” said MSSA President Dr. Timothy B. Gongaware.
Huntington lectures at Princeton
Dr. Yumi Park Huntington, assistant professor of art, lectured recently at Princeton University on Andean pre-Columbian ceramics.
An art history teacher, Huntington is writing a book titled Pre-Columbian Ceramics: A Thematic Approach.
She says her study is the only one of its type in the U.S. that looks at utilitarian objects from the archeology of the Andean region and catalogs them from the standpoint of social stratification, religious practices and the makers’ ethnicity.
Huntington recently won a $10,000 annual grant from a private philanthropist to further her research. She has taught at JSU since 2011.
Legislature honors professor, student
Dr. Zikri Arslan, professor of chemistry, and student Harold Owens III were honored by the Mississippi Legislature as part of Higher Education Appreciation Day/Working for Academic Excellence. The event is held annually to recognize academically talented students and faculty members from the state’s institutions of higher learning.
Owens is the winner of the JSU Student of the Year HEAD/WAE Award and is a JSU Presidential Scholar. He has been awarded a full scholarship to the graduate program in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Arslan previously worked as a National Research Council post-doctoral research associate at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s James Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory in Sandy Hook, N.J., and as an assistant research scientist at University of Maryland Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.
Anderson named to board of directors
Dr. Brian Anderson, associate professor of social work, has been elected to the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Board of Directors. He also was named Social Work Educator of the Year at the 43rd Alabama/ Mississippi Social Work Education Conference held at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Ala., an honor previously won in 2009.
Anderson was recently accepted to the third cohort of the Academy for Research and Scholarly Engagement at Jackson State.
He is an accreditation site visitor for the Council on Social Work Education and serves on CSWE’s Council on Leadership Development.
Former police chief oversees JSU’s safety
Lindsey Horton, former chief of police for the city of Jackson, joined Jackson State University’s leadership team as associate vice president for safety and security. He oversees safety and security at all JSU sites and venues and coordinates emergency and risk management across the university by continuously upgrading procedures, protocols and policies needed to keep the university safe.