The mission of the Black Faculty and Staff Association is to be an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, with an emphasis on African-American students, and the professional needs of its members
BFSA Executive Council for 2016-2018
Members of the Council are as follows:
President: Dr. Pamela Payne-Foster, deputy director, Institute for Rural Health Research, and associate professor, community and rural medicine, College of Community Health Sciences
Vice President: Dr. André R. Denham, assistant professor, educational leadership, policy and technology studies, College of Education
Secretary: Dr. Carlton McHargh, director of recruitment programs and alternative certification, College of Education
Parliamentarian: Dr. Hilary Green, assistant professor, gender and race studies, College of Arts and Sciences
Treasurer: Cynthia Moore, assistant director, Rural Scholars Program, College of Community Health Sciences
Immediate Past President: Dr. Utz McKnight, professor, gender and race studies, College of Arts and Sciences
Priority areas for 2016-2018
Diversity and Inclusion of Black Faculty and Staff
- Work with University partners to substantially increase the recruitment, retention and promotion of black faculty and staff.
Member Engagement in BFSA
- Conduct a drive to increase the membership of BFSA
- Plan regular ongoing social events as well as opportunities to discuss regular ongoing themes of interest to members
- Increase funding for the BFSA Scholarship Program
Mentorship/Support of Black Students
Continue existing student mentoring programs and develop new programming to increase support for black students on campus. Some examples of upcoming and ongoing University student programming that BFSA sponsors and/or supports:
- Black Robing Graduation Ceremony each semester to honor black students graduating from UA
- Black Scholars Program, which engages black freshmen into the academic and leadership programs on campus (i.e. Honors College, Freshman Forum, etc.)
- Leadership Forum (Spring, 2017)
- Research Forum with the African American Graduate Student Association (Spring, 2017)