The 25th annual African-American Recognition Program, honoring 110 Class of 2010 degree candidates at California State University, Fresno will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 23, at the Save Mart Center.
Dr. Marnel Niles, assistant professor of communication, will deliver the keynote address for the event, which is hosted by the Africana and American Indian Studies Program and the Black Faculty and Staff Association.
About 2,200 guests are expected for the event, which serves as a “right of passage” and has become a celebration of achievements by African-American students and their families, said Tawanda Hall, the event coordinator and a counselor in the Educational Opportunity Program.
The program begins with a ceremonial procession, musical selections by St. James & Friends and Edward Anderson and Reader’s Theatre presented by graduating seniors.
Niles joined the Fresno State faculty in 2007 and earlier this month received the Provost Award for Promising New Faculty. Her specialty is organizational and small group communication with an emphasis on issues relating to gender and race.
She has published several articles and book chapters and presented at numerous conference. Niles is working on a book, “Still Searching for Our Mothers’ Gardens: Experiences of New, Tenure-Track Women of Color at ‘Majority’ Institutions.”
She has been the adviser of the campus Black Students United since 2008.
Niles earned her bachelor’s degree from Oakwood University in Huntsville, Ala., where she majored in communication and minored in mathematics. She earned her master’s and Ph.D. in organizational and small group communication from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
A native of Philadelphia, she has taught at George Mason University, Howard and the University of Iowa.
For more information on the event, contact Hall at 559.278.5364 or tbowers@csufresno.edu.
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