2008 Conference Recap: Past Keynote Speakers
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Herma Williams, Ph.D.
Provost
Fresno Pacific University
Herma B. Williams, Ph.D., joined Fresno Pacific University (FPU), a Mennonite Brethren Institution, as provost and academic vice president August 1, 2006. FPU is home to more than 1,800 undergraduate students, 900 graduate students, and thousands of continuing education students from across the U.S. Dr. Williams' current goals include strengthening the university's commitment to teaching and research, and reaching out to Fresno and the surrounding communities.
Williams came to FPU from Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. While at Gordon, the college grew from 1,270 students to more than 1,700 and became more diverse, while raising its entrance standards.
As associate provost at Gordon, Williams helped build enrollments of underrepresented students, recruit a more diverse faculty, and engage students to address Boston’s problems. These efforts helped Gordon College earn the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities’ Racial Harmony Award.
The author of one book and numerous articles and papers, Williams is committed to faculty scholarship and student research. As a Fulbright Scholar, she directed a program to strengthen academic excellence at two universities in South Africa.
Williams earned her B.A. and M.A. from Southern Illinois University and her Ph.D. from Iowa State University. She also completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard University and was named a Kellogg Foundation and Ford Foundation fellow. She is married to Eric Williams, Ph.D., a professor of education at Howard University. They have two grown children.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Michael Emerson, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Rice University
Michael Emerson received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the Allyn and Gladys Cline Professor of Sociology and founding director of the Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life at Rice University.
In addition to numerous research articles, Emerson is the author of several books, including the award winning Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (Oxford University Press) and People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States (Princeton University Press), recently awarded the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for the book making the most significant contribution to overcoming racism, awarded by the Racial and Ethnic Minority section of the American Sociological Association.
Currently, he is directing a multi-million dollar funded research project to follow a racially and ethnically diverse group of 2,600 Americans over the next twenty years to understand change and continuity in their religious lives. In partnership with Shell Oil and the Shell Center for Sustainability, he is also principal investigator of a multidisciplinary team studying issues of environmental sustainability in coastal cities of the United States and China.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Alexander Jun, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Higher Education
University of Southern California
Alexander Jun, Ph.D., is associate professor of higher education and director of the Masters Program in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs (PASA) in the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. Prior to joining the faculty, he served as director of undergraduate programs in the Office of the Provost at USC. In that capacity, Jun was responsible for overseeing a variety of academic programs to increase retention and graduation for approximately 10,000 undergraduates at the university. He previously served on the research advisory board for the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), and as national director of NACAC’s Multicultural Institute for Advanced Thinking and Practice in Admission (MIATPA).
Jun conducts research on college access and equity for historically underrepresented groups in urban environments, and teaches courses in higher education and research methods. He is the author of From Here to University: Access, Mobility, and Resilience Among Urban Latino Youth (Routledge Press, 2001), and has published extensively on issues of postsecondary access, retention, and college preparation for historically underrepresented groups in urban environments.
Jun earned both his B.A. in Psychology and Political Science, and Ph.D. in Education Policy, from USC, and holds a master’s degree in counseling from California State University, Los Angeles. He is an ordained elder (PCA) at New Life Mission Church in Fullerton, California. Elder Alex, as he is more commonly referred to by his congregation, and his wife Jeany, a professor of pharmacy at Western University in Pomona, California, find balance in their academic lives by raising their beautiful daughter, Natalia, and handsome sons, Isaiah and Jeremiah.
