Leadership Fellows Residency III

Dr. Norman B. Anderson

Dr. Anderson has had a wide-ranging career as a national leader, first as a scientist and tenured professor studying health disparities and mind/body health, and later as an executive in government, non-profit, and higher education contexts. Dr. Anderson is currently Assistant Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs, and Professor of Social Work at Florida State University (FSU). In these roles, he works with faculty and administrators to advance the research mission of the university and to facilitate the success of emerging academic leaders. Dr. Anderson created and directs the FSU Faculty Leadership Development Program, which is designed to offer leadership training to faculty across the university at different stages of their professional journeys. Before joining FSU, Dr. Anderson served for 13 years as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Vice President of the American Psychological Association (APA), and was the second longest-serving (and first African American) CEO in the 125-year history of APA. Among APA’s numerous accomplishments during his tenure, the organization was named one of the top places to work in the Washing- ton, DC area in 2014. Dr. Anderson retired from APA in 2015. Prior to joining APA, Dr. Anderson was the founding Associate Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in charge of social and behavioral science, and was the first Director of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). At NIH, he facilitated behavioral and social sciences research across all of the Institutes and Centers of the NIH. Under his purview was behavioral and social research in such areas as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, children’s health, mental health, minority health, aging, and oral health. His special interest at NIH was in sociocultural determinants of health, and in advancing an integrated, trans-disciplinary, bio-psycho-social approach to health science, health promotion, prevention, and health care. In addition to his formal leadership roles, Dr. Anderson served as a tenured associate professor at Duke University School of Medicine and as a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is well-known for his research and writing on health and behavior, and on racial/ethnic and economic health inequities. For his research, service, and leadership, he has received a number of significant awards from scientific societies and universities. Among his numerous honors, in 2012 Anderson was elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academies of Science. In 2013, he was inducted into the Black College Hall of Fame for his work in science. Anderson is also the recipient of four honorary doctorate degrees.

Dr. Anderson is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. He is a past president of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. In addition to publishing dozens of scientific articles, Dr. Anderson is the author and editor of several books, including serving as editor-in-chief of the two-volume Encyclopedia of Health and Behavior (2003) and as co-editor of Interdisciplinary research: Case studies from health and social science (2008). For over 12 years he was editor-in-chief of APA’s flagship journal, American Psychologist. He is currently a Senior Editor of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Global Public Health.

As a Certified Professional Coach, Dr. Anderson is Principal of Anderson Leadership Coaching and Consulting, LLC, which builds on his nearly two decades of experience working with and developing senior executives and leaders in complex organizations. He currently has a special interest in using mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and positive psychology (strength-based approaches) to help established and emerging leaders perform at their best. Dr. Anderson is certified in the use of the EQ-i 2.0 measure of emotional intelligence and has training in mindfulness facilitation from the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. He also has specialized training in The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® (also known as The Leadership Challenge), one of the most extensively evaluated approaches to leadership development. Anderson graduated from NC Central University in Durham, NC., and earned masters and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He received additional clinical and research training at the schools of medicine at Brown and Duke Universities, including postdoctoral fellowships in psychophysiology and aging at Duke.

Dr. Angelicque Tucker Blackmon

Dr. Blackmon is the CEO and Director of Research and Evaluation at The Innovative Learning Center, LLC. ILC is an education, research, and data management firm. Dr. Blackmon earned her Ph.D. in Educational Studies with an emphasis in Science Education from Emory University. She has a B.S. and an M.S. degree in Analytical Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Blackmon completed a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cultural Anthropology. Dr. Blackmon was trained as a quantitative scientist but specializes in qualitative research methods and analysis. Before entering the field of education, she worked as a research chemist with Dow Chemical and 3M, where she used magnetic resonance imaging to characterize chemical compounds. She has an extensive background in developing and executing performance, outcome, and impact-based evaluations. She has a depth of knowledge of mixed methods research and general inferential statistical analysis. She specializes in designing STEM education program evaluation studies that measure cognitive and non-cognitive variables that influence students’ persistence and retention in STEM. She is the Principal Evaluator on one of few implementation programs inclusive of a research component designed to assess the impact of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) on HBCU students’ non-cognitive variables.

Dr. Blackmon served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. She has served as the external evaluator or researcher for 20 nationwide programs designed to increase students’ knowledge, skills, interests, attitudes, and efficacy in STEM, produced over 30 reports, conference presentations, research publications, and a book chapter. In addition to evaluating programs, Dr. Blackmon works with educational leaders to create strategic plans for program design and implementation, develop logic models, and provide clients with data visualization services to generate multiple ways to engage evaluation findings. She has her Human Research certification from the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). This certification has been valid from 2010 to the present.

Dr. Blackmon conducts research to embed learning assessments into existing emerging technology platforms. Dr. Blackmon is the Principal Investigator of an Eye-tracking Distance Learning Research Study. Eye-tracking hardware and software are used to objectively measure undergraduate students’ cognitive processes while solving chemistry word problems in an online environment. Research in chemistry education shows that eye-tracking is a useful new approach for exploring problem difficulty and students’ cognitive activities while solving word problems. This study is the only one being conducted where researchers use eye-tracking to objectively measure the impact of blended learning in chemistry on students’ problem-solving abilities.

Additionally, the study measures students’ perceptions of their problem-solving approach, confidence, control, and self-regulation. Research findings from this study have implications for chemistry education and software development to improve chemistry education. This research has been presented at national and international conferences. Another emerging technology project involves embedding learning assessments in Augmented Reality hardware and software. This project is a collaboration between Dr. Blackmon and researchers in Dublin, Ireland. Dr. Blackmon has combined advanced emerging technologies with rigorous evaluation strategies and methodologies to support clients in winning approximately $18 million in external program funding over the past 15 years.

Dr. Kimarie Engerman

Kimarie Engerman is Professor of Psychology, and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI). Dr. Engerman is a summa cum laude graduate of Bowie State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. She received her Master of Education, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Educational Psychology from Howard University. Also, she completed a Postdoc in Engineering Education at the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education, and earned a Post-Graduate Certificate in Academic Leadership from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Her other leadership positions at UVI include serving as Assistant Director for the Center for the Advancement of STEM Leadership (CASL); Provost Fellow; Chair, Academic Advising Committee; Chair, Dual Credit Committee; Chair, Institutional Review Board; Developer and Coordinator, Junior Faculty Mentoring Program; and Coordinator, Faculty Development Writing Group. Dr. Engerman served as principal investigator and co-principal investigator on various grants. Dr. Engerman is the lead editor of Women Called to Lead, and Women Having Impact.

Dr. David Hall

Dr. David Hall is the president of the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) since August 2009. Under Dr. Hall’s leadership, UVI has made important strides toward raising the image and position of the University. Prior to joining UVI, he served as Provost and Senior Vice President of Northeastern University, and previously as dean of the Northeastern University School of Law.

Having taught law for more than 25 years in the law schools of the University of Mississippi, University of Oklahoma and Northeastern University, Dr. Hall has enjoyed a distinguished career as an educational administrator and preeminent scholar in the field of law. In 2010, in recognition of his significant contributions to the legal field, Dr. Hall was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the New England School of Law in Boston, MA. He has been honored by the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association as a Trailblazer and was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the Legal Services Corporation Board of Directors. President Hall has been the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s Educational Leadership Award and inducted into the Kansas State University Athletics Hall of Fame.

His publications include works on civil rights, the U.S. Constitution and race, legal education, and social justice. He has authored a book on the intersection of law and spirituality and lectures nationally on topics of social justice, leadership, ethics, diversity and spiritual values in professional life.

Born in Savannah, Georgia, Dr. Hall holds a Bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University, where he was named an “All American” for his athletic and scholarly accomplishments. He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) from the University of Oklahoma, where he also earned a master’s degree in Human Relations. He holds both a Master of Laws (LL.M) degree and a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) from Harvard Law School.

Dr. Comfort Okpala

Dr. Comfort Okpala is a professor of leadership studies in the Department of Leadership Studies and Adult Education, College of Education at North Carolina A & T State University in Greensboro, NC. She served as the Chair for the department for more than five years. She also served as the Assistant Dean for Assessment and Research in the College of Education for two years. Dr. Okpala received her doctorate degree in educational leadership with a minor in research from Fayetteville State University in 1998. She received a master’s in business administration in 1982 in Illinois. She received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Roosevelt University in 1981. She received a Certificate for program evaluation and assessment from The EVAP Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill. She also received a Certificate on Evidence-Based Coaching from Fieldlings Graduate University. Her teaching areas include Leadership Theory, Organizational Structures, Organizational Behaviors, Qualitative Research, Higher Education Governance, Higher Education Finance, Decision Making, and Dissertation Research. She has supervised a number of student’s dissertation research and has served as the chair for over fifty dissertations. Her research agenda is grounded in leadership studies, STEM leadership, global leadership issues, policy, finance, social justice, resource equity, and African Studies. Dr. Okpala has over sixty research articles in a variety of ref- ereed journals like the Journal of Value-Based Leadership, International Business and Economics Research Journal, International Journal of Education and Social Science, International Journal of Business and Social Science, Journal of Continuing Higher Education, Journal of Early Childhood Education, Journal of Education Finance, Journal of Educational Researcher, Urban Education, Journal of Applied Business, Journal of Negro Education, Journal of College Teaching and Learning, Contemporary Issues in Education Research, Education, Journal of Research Initiative, Instructional Psychology, Georgia Educational Researcher, and others. Her published articles have received over twelve hundred citations by national and international scholars and researchers according to Google Scholar. She is also a noted Co-Editor of a Book Series and has authored several book chapters and books on leadership. Dr. Okpala is currently serving on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Negro Education and The Journal of Research Initiative. She serves as the Co-Director on the Education Team for CASL. Dr. Okpala has received numerous leadership awards and commendations for her work in leadership, teaching, and community engagement. She received the 2020-2021 University of North Carolina Board of Governor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Okpala enjoys reading and singing.

Dr. Nicole Calloway Rankins

Nicole Calloway Rankins, MD, MPH is an obstetrician/gynecologist. Dr. Rankins received her BS in mathematics, summa cum laude, from Spelman College and her BS in mechanical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University as part of a dual degree program. She was inducted into the inaugural class of Phi Beta Kappa at Spelman, and graduated in the top 10 in the School of Engineering at North Carolina A&T. Dr. Rankins went on to complete her MD degree at Eastern Virginia Medical School, where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Following medical school, she completed her residency training at Duke University Medical Center, where she was an Administrative Chief Resident. After Duke, Dr. Rankins completed a clinical research fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, during which time she earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in epidemiology. In support of a whole person approach to health, Dr. Rankins also completed a science grounded and evidence-based training program in integrative health coaching at Duke Integrative Medicine. Today Dr. Rankins practices full time as OB hospitalist physician where she is the Site Director for her hospital’s OB hospitalist program. She’s also an entrepreneur, hosts a popular pregnancy podcast, is an online childbirth course creator, and is active in her local community with volunteer work serving pregnant people. She currently resides in Richmond, VA with her husband Dr. Falcon Rankins and their two daughters.

Dr. Cynthia Warrick

Dr. Cynthia Warrick is the 7th President and the first female to lead Stillman College, a historically black liberal arts college in Tuscaloosa Alabama, that was founded by and affiliated with the Presbyterian Church USA.

Named one of the Ten Most Dominant HBCU Leaders of 2020 by the HBCU Campaign Fund, Dr. Warrick served as the Interim President of two HBCUs (Grambling State University and South Carolina State University) after advancing the faculty and administrative ranks at Howard University, the University of Texas, Texas Southern University, Florida A&M University, and Elizabeth City State University. She received the PhD in Environmental Science & Policy from George Mason University, the MS Public Policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the BS Pharmacy degree from Howard University. As a Biomedical Scientist and Pharmacist, she forges research and workforce development partnerships to grow the biomedical diversity pipeline between HBCUs, government agencies, industry and major research institutions. She was recently recognized by the Network Journal as one of 25 Influential Black Women in Business in 2021 and by the National Black MBA Association 2021 H. Naylor Fitzhugh Award for her work in gaining HBCU Capital Finance Loan forgiveness for 44 HBCUs, including over $400 million in debt forgiveness for Alabama’s HBCUs. Dr. Warrick has also been selected as a 2022 Honoree for the “Women Who Shape the State” by the Birmingham News organization, AL.com. She credits her success to the continuous support from her family and network of colleagues and friends, and by answering God’s call to serve others in education and healthcare.