Featured experts: Race, racism and civil rights
These experts can discuss a variety of contemporary and historical issues relating to race, racism and racial justice.
Cecil Foster
Professor of Transnational Studies in the Department of Africana and American Studies
Expertise: Canadian studies; multiculturalism, politics, race, ethnicity and immigration in Canada
Phone: 716-645-0786
Email: cecilfos@buffalo.edu
Foster is a novelist, essayist, journalist and scholar. He is a leading public intellectual on issues of citizenship, culture, multiculturalism, politics, race, ethnicity and immigration in the U.S. and Canada. He is author of books including, “They Call Me George: The Untold Story of the Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada"; “Blackness and Modernity: The Colour of Humanity and the Quest for Freedom”; and “A Place Called Heaven: The Meaning of Being Black in Canada.”
Donald A. Grinde Jr.
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Africana and American Studies
Expertise: Native American studies, Native American thought, Haudenosaunee/Iroquois history, U.S. Indian Policy since 1871, American Indian activism
Phone: 716-645-0828
Email: dgrinde@buffalo.edu
Grinde can speak to the media about Native American thought, history and activism, including in relation to contemporary issues such as systemic racism, land rights, environmental concerns and inclusive educational curriculum. Grinde’s research and teaching have focused on Haudenosaunee/Iroquois history, U.S. Indian policy since 1871, Native American thought, and environmental history.
Mt. Pleasant is an expert in Native American and Indigenous studies. She can speak to media about a wide range of issues in these fields. She can also comment on Indigenous inclusion in K-12 and higher education. Mt. Pleasant’s scholarship focuses on Haudenosaunee history during the 18th and 19th centuries. Her broader teaching and research interests include early American history; American Indian social and intellectual histories; settler colonialism, especially as it relates to legal and educational systems; conceptualizations of space, place and land tenure in Indian Country; and public history.
Kelly Patterson
Associate Professor of Social Work
Expertise: social welfare policy; cannabis policy; residential segregation; fair housing; gentrification; homelessness; poverty and economic inequality; race and class
Phone: 716-645-1248
Email: klp27@buffalo.edu
Patterson can comment on the root causes of racial injustice in the United States, and on solutions for creating a more just and equitable society. Her research focuses on social welfare and housing policy, highlighting how residential segregation relegates the poor and minorities to disadvantaged neighborhoods with lower quality schools, services and food, and higher exposure to crime. She can also discuss how racist housing policies have created segregated neighborhoods that are an easy target for police misconduct.
Raechele L. Pope
Associate Dean for Faculty and Student Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer in the Graduate School of Education
Expertise: multicultural education; equity, diversity and inclusion in higher education; campus climate; campus unrest; race, racism and race relations
Phone: 716-645-1098
Email: rlpope@buffalo.edu
Raechele Pope can discuss issues related to structural racism in society and within institutions, and how organizations can work to dismantle oppressive structures and systems. Pope is a leading scholar in higher education on multicultural competence and multicultural organizational change. Her research focuses on race, racism, equity, access, inclusion and engagement in higher education, and how structural change can create inclusive and equitable campuses. Her prescient article, “A Change is Gonna Come: Embracing Paradigm Shifts to Dismantle Oppressive Structures (2019),” focused on the need for structural change in higher education.
Margaret Rhee
Assistant Professor of Media Study
Expertise: digital storytelling; participatory art; new media, ethnic, cultural, Asian American, queer and feminist studies
Phone: 716-645-0923
Email: mrhee@buffalo.edu
Rhee is a poet, scholar and new media artist with interests in ethnic, cultural, queer and feminist studies. Much of her writing and scholarship has focused on the experiences of Asian Americans. She can speak to news outlets about issues of racism and racial justice impacting these communities, including model minority myths and the ways Asian Americans are perceived in the U.S. Rhee works at the intersection of race, gender and sexuality, and technology, art and popular culture. She is interested in how technology and new media can promote equity, political participation and social justice.
Henry-Louis Taylor Jr.
Director of the Center for Urban Studies
Expertise: urban development, housing, gentrification, underdeveloped neighborhoods, shrinking cities, race and class, U.S.-Cuba relations
Phone: 716-829-5458
Email: htaylor@buffalo.edu
Taylor can comment broadly on issues of race and racial justice. His research focuses on a historical and contemporary analysis of underdeveloped urban neighborhoods, social isolation, and race and class issues among people of color. He is a UB professor of urban and regional planning, director of the UB Center for Urban Studies, an associate director of the UB Community Health Equity Research Institute, and a member of the African American Health Equity Task Force in Buffalo.
Health disparities, COVID-19
Jenifer Barclay
Associate Professor of History
Expertise: disability history; disability, race, gender, class and sexuality; intersectionality; ableism; African American history; history of slavery, emancipation and the U.S. Civil War
Phone: 716-645-8409
Email: barclay7@buffalo.edu
Barclay is an expert on the history of disability as it intersects with the history of race, gender, class and sexuality, especially in the era before, during and after the U.S. Civil War. Barclay’s research places African American history into conversation with the “new” disability history, a field that emphasizes disability as a lived human experience embedded in a set of socially constructed ideas that change over time, across cultures and in relation to other categories of identity.
Isok Kim
Associate Professor of Social Work
Expertise: mental health and wellbeing among Asian Americans; refugee-related trauma; post-resettlement challenges; culturally responsive mental health services
Phone: 716-645-1252
Email: isokkim@buffalo.edu
Kim can discuss the role of race and ethnicity in mental health disparities, particularly among immigrant and refugee communities. His research seeks to address the needs of the Asian American community, specifically Southeast Asians. His work includes developing community-based research with Burmese/Karen refugees in Buffalo, and he is interested in the creation of programs that respond to the mental health issues of refugees and their trauma experiences.
David A. Milling
Senior Associate Dean for Student and Academic Affairs in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Expertise: medical education; clinical skills; multicultural affairs and cultural competency in medicine; diversity in the medical profession
Phone: 716-829-2802
Email: dmilling@buffalo.edu
Contact: Milling can also be reached through Ellen Goldbaum in University Communications at 716-645-4605 or goldbaum@buffalo.edu, or Douglas Sitler in University Communications at 716-645-9069 or drsitler@buffalo.edu.
Milling can speak to media about medical education during the pandemic. Among other issues, he can discuss cultural competency in medicine, how medical schools can improve cultural competency among students, and efforts to recruit more underrepresented students to pursue medicine. He directs UB’s post-baccalaureate program, funded by the New York State Department of Health and supported by the Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY) and the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. The intensive program is designed to expand the pool of underrepresented, economically and educationally disadvantaged students in medical school.
Timothy F. Murphy
SUNY Distinguished Professor of Medicine
Expertise: infectious diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), vaccine development, children’s ear infections, health disparities, clinical and translational science
Phone: 716-881-8911
Email: murphyt@buffalo.edu
Murphy can discuss inequities in health care access, COVID-19's disproportionate impact on people of color in underserved communities, and issues surrounding equitable vaccine distribution. He directs the UB Community Health Equity Research Institute.
Heather Ochs-Balcom
Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Environmental Health
Expertise: cancer, genetic influences on disease risk, women’s health
Phone: 716-829-5338
Email: hmochs2@buffalo.edu
Ochs-Balcom can discuss the need for public health and epidemiological research to include diverse populations. She has a research focus on reducing cancer health disparities. She was the lead researcher on the Jewels in Our Genes study, which identified three locations in African American women's genomes that may contain undiscovered genes that contribute to hereditary breast cancer.
Heather Orom
Associate Professor of Community Health and Health Behavior
Expertise: health disparities, illness risk perception
Phone: 716-829- 6682
Email: horom@buffalo.edu
Orom can discuss how COVID-19's disproportionate impact communities of color and people of low socioeconomic status due to decades of inequities that have made people with less education, people living in poverty and racial/ethnic minorities more vulnerable to serious COVID-19 disease. She is an associate director of the UB Community Health Equity Research Institute.
Kelly Patterson
Associate Professor of Social Work
Expertise: social welfare policy; cannabis policy; residential segregation; fair housing; gentrification; homelessness; poverty and economic inequality; race and class
Phone: 716-645-1248
Email: klp27@buffalo.edu
Patterson can discuss how residential segregation and economic inequality contributes to health disparities, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes issues tied to unequal access to housing, education, services and food.
Maria Y. Rodriguez
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Expertise: Computational methods in social work and social policy; social movements on social media; disinformation targeting Black and brown communities online
Phone: 716-645-2986
Email: myr2@buffalo.edu
Rodriguez uses computational social science methods to address problems in social work, social policy and human services. Among other topics, her interests include questions at the intersection of social media and social justice. This includes social work’s social media response to COVID-19, as well as disinformation that may inhibit vaccine acceptance in Black and brown communities.
Sourav Sengupta
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics
Expertise: Child and adolescent mental health; children’s and adolescents’ use of technology, including screen time
Email: souravse@buffalo.edu
Contact: Sourav Sengupta can be reached through Ellen Goldbaum in University Communications at 716-645-4605 or goldbaum@buffalo.edu, or Douglas Sitler in University Communications at 716-645-9069 or drsitler@buffalo.edu.
Sengupta can discuss the individual, family, community and societal mental health consequences of systemic racism, and disparities in access to mental health care.
Henry-Louis Taylor Jr.
Director of the Center for Urban Studies
Expertise: urban development, housing, gentrification, underdeveloped neighborhoods, shrinking cities, race and class, U.S.-Cuba relations
Phone: 716-829-5458
Email: htaylor@buffalo.edu
Taylor can discuss health disparities and the differential impact that COVID-19 is having on African Americans, the Black community and low-income urban groups, especially people living in poverty. This framework includes issues of unemployment, housing and access to treatment. He is a UB professor of urban and regional planning, director of the UB Center for Urban Studies, an associate director of the UB Community Health Equity Research Institute, and a member of the African American Health Equity Task Force in Buffalo.
Hilary Weaver
Professor Emeritus of Social Work
Expertise: Multicultural social work; historical and contemporary issues affecting Indigenous Peoples, including Native Americans; refugee health and well-being; trauma and resilience
Phone: 716-645-1226
Email: hweaver@buffalo.edu
Weaver can discuss health disparities among Indigenous Peoples, and how inequities in health care access and services have worsened the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on Native American populations. Weaver is a social worker, educator and researcher whose work centers on the importance of culture in helping processes, and how social work and other helping professions can be more responsive to culturally diverse people.
Urban development, housing, residential segregation
Kelly Patterson
Associate Professor of Social Work
Expertise: social welfare policy; cannabis policy; residential segregation; fair housing; gentrification; homelessness; poverty and economic inequality; race and class
Phone: 716-645-1248
Email: klp27@buffalo.edu
Samina Raja
Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
Expertise: food access, food systems planning, food and urban planning, local government food policy
Phone: 716-829-5881
Email: sraja@buffalo.edu
Robert Silverman
Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
Expertise: shrinking cities, fair housing, affordable housing, gentrification, community development, nonprofit organizations, community-based organizations in urban neighborhoods
Phone: 716-829-5882
Email: rms35@buffalo.edu
Henry-Louis Taylor Jr.
Director of the Center for Urban Studies
Expertise: urban development, housing, gentrification, underdeveloped neighborhoods, shrinking cities, race and class, U.S.-Cuba relations
Phone: 716-829-5458
Email: htaylor@buffalo.edu
Victoria Wolcott
Director of the Gender Institute
Expertise: civil rights, African American history, race and cities, urban history, gender, sexuality
Phone: 716-645-8411
Email: vwwolcot@buffalo.edu
Economic inequality
Matthew Dimick
Professor of Law
Expertise: income inequality, tax and welfare policy as it relates to income inequality, corporations, employment law, labor law
Phone: 716-645-7968
Email: mdimick@buffalo.edu
Erin Hatton
Professor of Sociology
Expertise: labor movements, gig economy, job security, coerced labor, pay for college athletes, minimum wage, workfare
Phone: 716-645-8476
Email: eehatton@buffalo.edu
Kelly Patterson
Associate Professor of Social Work
Expertise: social welfare policy; cannabis policy; residential segregation; fair housing; gentrification; homelessness; poverty and economic inequality; race and class
Phone: 716-645-1248
Email: klp27@buffalo.edu
Henry-Louis Taylor Jr.
Director of the Center for Urban Studies
Expertise: urban development, housing, gentrification, underdeveloped neighborhoods, shrinking cities, race and class, U.S.-Cuba relations
Phone: 716-829-5458
Email: htaylor@buffalo.edu
Education, schools
Annahita Ball
Associate Professor of Social Work
Expertise: family engagement in schools; educational justice and reform; school-based mental health services; school-community partnerships
Phone: 716-645-8951
Email: annahita@buffalo.edu
Jenifer Barclay
Associate Professor of History
Expertise: disability history; disability, race, gender, class and sexuality; intersectionality; ableism; African American history; history of slavery, emancipation and the U.S. Civil War
Phone: 716-645-8409
Email: barclay7@buffalo.edu
Luis A. Colón
A. Conger Goodyear Professor of Chemistry
Expertise: analytical chemistry, separation science, liquid chromatography, diversity in STEM, mentoring students of color
Phone: 716-645-4213
Email: lacolon@buffalo.edu
Donald A. Grinde Jr.
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Africana and American Studies
Expertise: Native American studies, Native American thought, Haudenosaunee/Iroquois history, U.S. Indian Policy since 1871, American Indian activism
Phone: 716-645-0828
Email: dgrinde@buffalo.edu
Sameer Honwad
Assistant Professor of Learning and Instruction
Expertise: access, equity and diversity in education; cultural studies; international education; science and environmental education
Phone: 716-645-2455
Email: sameerho@buffalo.edu
LaGarrett J. King
Director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education
Expertise: Black history education, social studies, history of education, teacher education, racism and anti-Blackness
Phone: 716-645-2455
Email: lagarret@buffalo.edu
David A. Milling
Senior Associate Dean for Student and Academic Affairs in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Expertise: medical education; clinical skills; multicultural affairs and cultural competency in medicine; diversity in the medical profession
Phone: 716-829-2802
Email: dmilling@buffalo.edu
Contact: Milling can also be reached through Ellen Goldbaum in University Communications at 716-645-4605 or goldbaum@buffalo.edu, or Douglas Sitler in University Communications at 716-645-9069 or drsitler@buffalo.edu.
Tiffany Karalis Noel
Clinical Assistant Professor of Learning and Instruction
Expertise: sociocultural inequity in education, teacher preparation and retention, mentoring in higher education
Phone: 716-645-2455
Email: tbkarali@buffalo.edu
Raechele L. Pope
Associate Dean for Faculty and Student Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer in the Graduate School of Education
Expertise: multicultural education; equity, diversity and inclusion in higher education; campus climate; campus unrest; race, racism and race relations
Phone: 716-645-1098
Email: rlpope@buffalo.edu
Matilde Sanchez-Pena
Assistant Professor of Engineering Education
Expertise: engineering education, cultures of wellbeing, institutional diversity, faculty advancement, equity in the engineering field, women in STEM, intersectionality
Phone: 716-645-5861
Email: matildes@buffalo.edu
Stephen Santa-Ramirez
Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy
Expertise: access and equity in higher education; race, ethnicity, im/migration and Latinx collegians' educational experiences; undocumented and DACA students in higher education
Phone: 716-645-5236
Email: srsantar@buffalo.edu
Letitia Thomas
Assistant Dean for Diversity in the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Expertise: STEM education and pipelines; women and students of color in STEM; sociology of education; social justice; social networks; microaggressions
Phone: 716-645-3071
Email: lthomas@buffalo.edu
Policing, criminal justice system
Athena D. Mutua
Professor of Law and Floyd H. and Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar
Expertise: civil rights law; constitutional law (Fourteenth Amendment); critical race and feminist legal theory; law and political economy; race and the legal justice system
Phone: 716-645-2873. Athena D. Mutua can sometimes be contacted more quickly through the UB Media Relations team at ub-news@buffalo.edu.
Email: admutua@buffalo.edu
Anthony O’Rourke
Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad Professor of Civil Justice
Expertise: criminal law and procedure, inequality in the criminal justice system
Phone: 716-645-3097
Email: aorourke@buffalo.edu
Democracy, politics
Cecil Foster
Professor of Transnational Studies in the Department of Africana and American Studies
Expertise: Canadian studies; multiculturalism, politics, race, ethnicity and immigration in Canada
Phone: 716-645-0786
Email: cecilfos@buffalo.edu
Donald A. Grinde Jr.
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Africana and American Studies
Expertise: Native American studies, Native American thought, Haudenosaunee/Iroquois history, U.S. Indian Policy since 1871, American Indian activism
Phone: 716-645-0828
Email: dgrinde@buffalo.edu
History
Jenifer Barclay
Associate Professor of History
Expertise: disability history; disability, race, gender, class and sexuality; intersectionality; ableism; African American history; history of slavery, emancipation and the U.S. Civil War
Phone: 716-645-8409
Email: barclay7@buffalo.edu
Carole Emberton
Professor of History
Expertise: Civil War era, Confederate flag and monuments, history of race, slavery, Southern history, racial violence
Phone: 716-645-8405
Email: emberton@buffalo.edu
Cecil Foster
Professor of Transnational Studies in the Department of Africana and American Studies
Expertise: Canadian studies; multiculturalism, politics, race, ethnicity and immigration in Canada
Phone: 716-645-0786
Email: cecilfos@buffalo.edu
Donald A. Grinde Jr.
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Africana and American Studies
Expertise: Native American studies, Native American thought, Haudenosaunee/Iroquois history, U.S. Indian Policy since 1871, American Indian activism
Phone: 716-645-0828
Email: dgrinde@buffalo.edu
LaGarrett J. King
Director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education
Expertise: Black history education, social studies, history of education, teacher education, racism and anti-Blackness
Phone: 716-645-2455
Email: lagarret@buffalo.edu
Ndubueze L. Mbah
Associate Professor of History
Expertise: African history; the Atlantic World; colonialism; gender in West Africa; history of slavery and emancipation; Boko Haram
Phone: 716-645-8415
Email: ndubueze@buffalo.edu
Lillian S. Williams
Associate Professor of Africana and American Studies
Expertise: U.S. social and urban history; African American history in the U.S. and Western New York; women’s history
Phone: 716-645-0798
Email: lsw4@buffalo.edu
Victoria Wolcott
Director of the Gender Institute
Expertise: civil rights, African American history, race and cities, urban history, gender, sexuality
Phone: 716-645-8411
Email: vwwolcot@buffalo.edu
Immigrant, refugee and diaspora experiences
Cecil Foster
Professor of Transnational Studies in the Department of Africana and American Studies
Expertise: Canadian studies; multiculturalism, politics, race, ethnicity and immigration in Canada
Phone: 716-645-0786
Email: cecilfos@buffalo.edu
Isok Kim
Associate Professor of Social Work
Expertise: mental health and wellbeing among Asian Americans; refugee-related trauma; post-resettlement challenges; culturally responsive mental health services
Phone: 716-645-1252
Email: isokkim@buffalo.edu
Margaret Rhee
Assistant Professor of Media Study
Expertise: digital storytelling; participatory art; new media, ethnic, cultural, Asian American, queer and feminist studies
Phone: 716-645-0923
Email: mrhee@buffalo.edu
Stephen Santa-Ramirez
Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy
Expertise: access and equity in higher education; race, ethnicity, im/migration and Latinx collegians' educational experiences; undocumented and DACA students in higher education
Phone: 716-645-5236
Email: srsantar@buffalo.edu
Hilary Weaver
Professor Emeritus of Social Work
Expertise: Multicultural social work; historical and contemporary issues affecting Indigenous Peoples, including Native Americans; refugee health and well-being; trauma and resilience
Phone: 716-645-1226
Email: hweaver@buffalo.edu
Diversity in the workplace
Kate Bezrukova
Associate Professor and Chair of Organization and Human Resources
Expertise: team chemistry in business and sports; managing a diverse workforce; unconscious bias at work; negotiations and gender; work-life balance; conflict management; artificial intelligence in teams
Contact: Kate Bezrukova can be reached most quickly through Jackie Ghosen in the School of Management Communications Office at 716-645-2833 or mgt-pr@buffalo.edu.
Raechele L. Pope
Associate Dean for Faculty and Student Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer in the Graduate School of Education
Expertise: multicultural education; equity, diversity and inclusion in higher education; campus climate; campus unrest; race, racism and race relations
Phone: 716-645-1098
Email: rlpope@buffalo.edu
Margaret Rhee
Assistant Professor of Media Study
Expertise: digital storytelling; participatory art; new media, ethnic, cultural, Asian American, queer and feminist studies
Phone: 716-645-0923
Email: mrhee@buffalo.edu
Matilde Sanchez-Pena
Assistant Professor of Engineering Education
Expertise: engineering education, cultures of wellbeing, institutional diversity, faculty advancement, equity in the engineering field, women in STEM, intersectionality
Phone: 716-645-5861
Email: matildes@buffalo.edu
Margaret Rhee
Assistant Professor of Media Study
Expertise: digital storytelling; participatory art; new media, ethnic, cultural, Asian American, queer and feminist studies
Phone: 716-645-0923
Email: mrhee@buffalo.edu
Maria Y. Rodriguez
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Expertise: Computational methods in social work and social policy; social movements on social media; disinformation targeting Black and brown communities online
Phone: 716-645-2986
Email: myr2@buffalo.edu
Climate change, environmental justice
Donald A. Grinde Jr.
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Africana and American Studies
Expertise: Native American studies, Native American thought, Haudenosaunee/Iroquois history, U.S. Indian Policy since 1871, American Indian activism
Phone: 716-645-0828
Email: dgrinde@buffalo.edu
Sameer Honwad
Assistant Professor of Learning and Instruction
Expertise: access, equity and diversity in education; cultural studies; international education; science and environmental education
Phone: 716-645-2455
Email: sameerho@buffalo.edu
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