William Paterson University in Wayne selected five doctoral candidates for an inaugural, two-year teaching fellowship program aimed at advancing faculty diversity in higher education by supporting doctoral or terminal degree candidates from underrepresented backgrounds.
The program, announced in January, supports the University’s commitment to diversifying its teaching faculty.
The university announced its selections on May 25:
Jasmine Henry of Rutgers University will teach in the music department; Shannon Holder of the University of Connecticut will teach within the educational leadership and professional studies department; Javier Jasso of University of Texas at Austin will teach within the communication disorders and sciences department; Steven Jones of Rutgers University will teach within the psychology department; and Soohyun (Ashley) Lee of Baruch College will teach within the graduate center, CUNY, management, marketing, and professional sales departments.
Each fellow takes their post in August.
The fellowship is designed to nurture the instructional talent and effective scholarship launch of these early-career faculty members.
– Joshua Powers, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs
“As a public university serving a highly diverse student population, we are investing through this inclusive program in ways that both meet the needs of our diverse students and position strong doctoral candidates from underrepresented backgrounds for successful careers in post-secondary education,” says Joshua Powers, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, in a prepared statement.
“The fellowship is designed to nurture the instructional talent and effective scholarship launch of these early-career faculty members. The programs selected to host our inaugural class of fellows have committed to inclusive mentorship and all are excited by the opportunity to enhance the quality of our faculty and the diversity of their departments,” Powers said.
Academic departments hosting the fellows at William Paterson commit to mentoring and to providing them with similar levels of research support as they would for tenure-track faculty, per the program. As fellows teach within their department, they will participate in a cohort experience that will position them for a tenure-track faculty appointment at William Paterson or another institution of higher education.
“We are proud to be federally recognized as both a Hispanic-serving institution and minority-serving institution with a firm commitment to creating and sustaining a campus culture of inclusion,” says David Jones, chief diversity officer and director of talent management – who served as a co-coordinator for this program’s development, in a prepared statement. “This fellowship program demonstrates our university’s shared goal to build a more diverse teaching faculty by supporting the growth of doctoral students from diverse backgrounds.”
