Academics

Graduate Students and Faculty Members Awarded Funds to Attend National Faculty Women of Color Conference

The 15 recipients of funding to attend the 2024 Faculty Women of Color in the Academy (FWCA) national conference — Top row (l-r) Ibironke Ajayi, Danielle Bradley, Debadatta Chakraborty, Misun “Sunny” Kim, Erika Lala. Middle row (l-r) Minji Lee, Barbara Mottey, Cielo Sharks, Mariam Sheikh, Sofia Alhassan. Bottom row (l-r) Soo Young Bae, Jedaidah Chilufya, Karine Fenelon, Chanyoung Park, Lindiwe Sibeko.

The Office of the Provost, in collaboration with the Office of Equity and Inclusion and the Graduate School, has awarded 15 UMass Amherst graduate students and faculty members funding to attend the 2024 Faculty Women of Color in the Academy (FWCA) national conference April 11-14 in Arlington, Virginia.

Now in its 12^th year, the annual FWCA conference hosted by Virginia Tech offers a unique educational and professional opportunity for indigenous and women of color in higher education to network and learn with hundreds of their peers from across the country. The conference features talks and workshop sessions designed to explore and encourage leadership, career advancement and personal well-being scholar activism to empower women of color in academia.

Funds were awarded to the following nine graduate students and six faculty members:

Ibironke Ajayi, graduate student, Public Health, Graduate School
Danielle Bradley, graduate student, English, College of Humanities and Fine Arts
Debadatta Chakraborty, graduate student, Department of Sociology, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Misun “Sunny” Kim, graduate student, Hospitality and Tourism Management, Isenberg School of Management
Erika Lala, graduate student, Student Development, College of Education
Minji Lee, graduate student, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, College of Natural Sciences
Barbara Mottey, graduate student, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Health Sciences
Cielo Sharks, graduate student, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering
Mariam Sheikh, graduate student, Department of Educational Policy, Research and Administration, College of Education
Sofia Alhassan, professor, Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health and Health Sciences
Soo Young Bae, associate professor, Department of Communication, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Jedaidah Chilufya, lecturer, Department of Plant Biology, College of Natural Sciences
Karine Fenelon, assistant professor, Department of Biology, College of Natural Sciences
Chanyoung Park, senior lecturer, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, College of Humanities and Fine Arts
Lindiwe Sibeko, associate professor, Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health and Health Sciences

UMass Amherst is an institutional sponsor for the FWCA conference this year, and on the last morning of the conference Mari Castañeda, dean of the Commonwealth Honors College, will be a featured speaker on the signature panel, Pathways to Leadership.

“In providing this level of support and sponsorship for the FWCA, UMass Amherst acknowledges the importance of building and sustaining a community of belonging for women of color in higher education, and further highlights our desire to continue the hard work of achieving equity and belonging on our campus,” says Wilmore Webley, senior vice provost for equity and inclusion.