Page 17 - N.C. A&T Magazine Spring 2019

caMpUs highlights

Faculty, staff & administrators

roBin CoGer, Ph.d. (pictured top), is also consistently among the top three
and franCes Ward-Johnson, Ph.d. campuses in production of African-American
’86/’95 (bottom), were among 23 women women engineers.
recently named Triad Business Journal (TBJ) Ward-Johnson, dean of the College of Arts,
Outstanding Women in Business for 2019. Like Humanities and Social Sciences, returned
their business and community leader colleagues, to the university last year and is at the helm
Coger and Ward-Johnson were nominated for of more than 100 faculty and staff who
doing “extraordinary work in the Triad.”
serve more than 1,850 students across six
Coger has been with the university since 2011. departments. Her college has significant
She leads more than 120 faculty and staff who impact on the undergraduate experience at
mohd anWar, Ph.d., associate professor in the serve nearly 2,000 students across 23 academic N.C. A&T, providing the heart of the general
Department of Computer Science, is using Twitter programs. One of few African-American woman education curriculum that all students are
to study the opioid epidemic in the United States. A team of North Carolina A&T researchers led by deans for a college of engineering, Coger is required to complete.
Last fall Anwar began collaborating with RTI solomon BililiGn, Ph.d., principal investigator (pictured chairwoman of the national Council of HBCU
International, an independent nonprofit research left), and marC fiddler, Ph.d., co-principal investigator Engineering Deans and is a board member of Prior to her return, Ward-Johnson worked 15
institute, to study the extent to which social media (right), received a $1 million grant from the National Science For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and years at Elon University in various leadership
data can be harnessed as an indicator of the opioid Foundation (NSF) to study the climate and health impacts Technology, along with Advancing Minorities’ capacities, including faculty fellow in the
epidemic. His research explores the power of social of biomass smoke, combustion emissions and sub-Saharan Interest in Engineering. Office of the Provost. She also co-chaired
media to gauge the progression of the opioid Africa and Saharan dust mixed with biomass smoke. The the Presidential Task Force on Black Student,
crisis in near-real time and to understand how data team will look at the optical properties of biomass smoke as She leads a college that produces more Faculty and Staff Experiences and was a co-
extracted from social media platforms correlate a function of relative humidity and the health implications of African-American engineers than any other leader of study abroad programs to Greece
with ground truths such as drug overdoses. campus across the United States and that and Barbados.
the smoke. The grant is for three years through 2021.
Anwar gathers, mines and scientifically translates Bililign and his team of undergraduate and graduate
public opioid-related Twitter data in North researchers will collaborate with Colorado State University
Carolina, to understand and identify interventional in field research and modeling of health impacts, and with
opportunities. In February, he presented preliminary Howard University to collect filter samples on aboard maritime
results on the content and changing patterns of research platforms on NOAA ships on the Atlantic Ocean. Galen foresman, Ph.d., was named one of the Triad Business
opioid-related conversations occurring in the North Journal’s 40 Under Forty, which recognizes young professionals
Carolina Twitterspace, as well as implications for The overall goals of the project, “HBCU-Excellence in (ages of 21 and 39) for their leadership and achievements within
future research comparing subgroups, using larger Research: Radiative Effects of Biomass Burning Aerosols their organizations as well as have substantial community
samples, and integrating additional social media Laboratory and Field Measurements and Modeling of involvement outside their day-to-day job.

platforms. Climate and Health Impacts,” are to understand the chemical Now in his 11th year at N.C. A&T, Foresman is a tenured professor
composition and optical properties of biomass burning
The research signals that social media platforms aerosols, quantifying and understanding various biomass of philosophy in the Department of Liberal Studies and co-
like Twitter represent alternative indicators of emissions and emission factors to understand their impact director of the Wabash Provost Scholars Program. He has
the evolving opioid crisis and provide nearly on global climate, air quality and human health. received A&T’s Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award for the
omnipresent, timely and readily-ingested data for then College of Arts and Sciences, as well as funding from the Academy for Teaching
research purposes. “Because of this grant’s emphasis on research excellence and Learning and the Center for Distance Learning. He is also a co-author of “The Critical
at HBCUs, this project will directly increase the number of Thinking Toolkit” (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016) and editor of “Supernatural and Philosophy:
Anwar is the first N.C. A&T faculty member to be minority students trained in atmospheric science both in Metaphysics and Monsters ... for Idjits” (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), part of the Blackwell
selected as an RTI University Scholar. Scholars take field and laboratory research,” said Bililign. Philosophy and Pop Culture Series.
leave from their home institutions to collaborate
with RTI researchers, advancing research in priority The project also will allow A&T faculty and students to be Foresman’s passion for people and his volunteer work include service with the Guilford
areas of national need. Anwar’s cohort includes part of a major field campaign to study wildfire emissions in Green Foundation and the Hands4Hearts Committee, which helps children with
researchers from Duke University, North Carolina collaboration with NSF’s National Center for Atmospheric congenital heart defects. In addition to his volunteer work, Foresman serves as the vice
State University and the University of North Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chairman of the Faculty Senate and coordinator of the pre-law program. He is also a
Carolina at Chapel Hill. and NASA Aerodyne company and other universities. member of Cone Health’s ethics committee.

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