Book by Talladega Alumna Designated an Oprah Winfrey Book Club Selection

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Class of 1989, is the author of the highly acclaimed novel, “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois.”  The novel, that traces centuries of Black history, told by a contemporary narrator, in the American south, has been designated an Oprah Winfrey Book Club selection. 

Jacqueline Woodson, Author of “Red at the Bone” and “Another Brooklyn” calls “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” a “sweeping, brilliant and beautiful narrative (that is) at once a love song to Black girlhood, family, history, joy, pain, and so much more. In Jeffers’ deft hands the story of race and love in America becomes the great American Novel.” A full review of the novel is available at Review: ‘The Love Songs Of W.E.B. DuBois,’ By Honorée Fannone Jeffers : NPR

Announcing the “Sherman A. James Diverse and Inclusive Epidemiology Award”

The Society for Epidemiologic Research is pleased to announce the “Sherman A. James Diverse and Inclusive Epidemiology Award”. The award will recognize an individual who has demonstrated research, teaching or service that expands the scope of the field to under-represented or disadvantaged populations or researchers, and with an impact that has facilitated greater diversity and inclusiveness.

Core criteria for selection include interdisciplinary contributions or leadership to diversity and inclusion related efforts. This could include research, policy, community engagement, public health practice, program development, teaching and/or mentorship.

Sherman A. James, currently the Susan B. King Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, worked at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill from 1973 to 1989 and at the University of Michigan from 1989 to 2003. At Michigan Public Health, he was the John P. Kirscht Collegiate Professor of Public Health, a professor of epidemiology, the founding director of the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health (CRECH), chair of the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, and a senior research scientist in the Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research.

James’ research focuses on the social determinants of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in health and health care in the United States. He is the originator of the John Henryism Hypothesis which posits that repeated high-effort coping with chronic social and economic adversity rooted in structural racism is an important factor in the early onset of hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases in African Americans. Dr. James is a long-standing member of SER which includes service as President in 2007-2008.

The Sherman A James Diverse and Inclusive Epidemiology Award is sponsored by the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Department of Epidemiology.

The inaugural recipient will receive the award at the 2022 SER Meeting to be held in Chicago. Nominations will be accepted September 30, 2021 – January 14, 2022.

Talladega Alumni Emmanuel Piña New Director of Alumni Affairs

Mr. Emmanuel Piña ’13 was recently named director of alumni affairs for Talladega College. The former Tornado baseball player and McNair Scholar earned a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Talladega College and a Master of Science in leadership from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

His responsibilities at Talladega will include developing and implementing annual giving and alumni relations programs.“I look forward to reaching out to alumni that we have not been in contact with. I also want to build a stronger relationship with those that we are in contact with, and update our database so that we can more easily maintain contact with all alumni,” Mr. Piña said. “Our alumni are a part of the Talladega College family and we want them to know that they are important to us.”

Mr. Piña, whose parents are from the Dominican Republic, is a native New Yorker and a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated. He is fluent in Spanish and previously taught high school mathematics. “There are many surprising similarities between my new position as director of alumni affairs and my prior role as a teacher. You cannot be a good teacher without developing a relationship with students, and developing a relationship with our alumni will be one of the most important aspects of my position as alumni affairs director,” he states.