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Wednesday May 14, 2008 : News @ A&S
Rockefeller Brothers Fund honors two
Dinh Phan, a junior majoring in English, and Stephanie Okpala, a junior psychology and Spanish major studying abroad in Madrid, have been awarded 2008 Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) Fellowships for Aspiring Teachers of Color.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund supports students of color interested in pursuing teaching careers in U.S. public schools. Recipients receive up to $22,100 over a five-year period beginning the summer after their junior year and continuing through three years of teaching in a public school.
Phan and Okpala join 2007 RBF recipient Brence Pernell, a senior history major who is student-teaching in Durham public schools.
In brief:
- Adam Nathan T'10 won a Goldman Sachs Global Leaders award, one of 16 granted annually to U.S. college sophomores with exceptional academic and leadership ability.
- The Davis Projects for Peace Fund honored Zhuoma Gadou T'11 and Nanjie Caihua T'10, who will share a $10,000 award for their 2008 summer project to provide solar cookers to ethnic Tibetan families in remote areas of China.
- Edward Gomes Jr. was named associate dean for Arts & Sciences Information Science and Technology (A&SIST). Currently head of Information Systems Support (ISS) for the Perkins Library System, Gomes succeeds Molly Tamarkin, who accepted a position at Puget Sound University.
- Sabrina L. Thomas, a member of the faculty at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) and an expert on the historical significance of black dolls as a reflection of race and race relations within United States culture, was named an associate Trinity College academic dean. She will assume the responsibilities of Associate Dean Martina J. Bryant, a member of the Trinity College administration since 1977, who is retiring at the end of June.
- Trinity College Assistant Academic Deans Caroline L. Lattimore G'78 and Michele Rasmussen G'99 were promoted to associate academic deans. Promoted to assistant academic deans were four assistant deans for advising: Milton Blackmon, Donna Kostyu G'79, Diane McKay T'87 G'00 '01, and Lynn White.
- Charles W. Byrd will retire as Arts & Sciences associate dean for academic affairs at the end of the 2007-08 academic year. An adjunct associate professor of French, Byrd came to Duke in 1987 from Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia. Part of the Arts & Sciences administration since 1987, Byrd is responsible for most aspects of faculty appointment at Duke, from searches to retirement.