Black Male Educator Pipeline Strengthened with BSU Professor’s Award

Dr. Julius Davis Used USM Award to Found Center for Research & Mentoring of Black Male Students & Teachers

MEDIA CONTACT: Damita Chambers, dchambers@bowiestate.edu, 301-832-2628 mobile

(BOWIE, Md.) – A Bowie State University mathematics education professor, who is developing a national model program to encourage more Black males to become educators, was selected for a highly competitive University System of Maryland professorship funding for a second straight year.

With last year’s Wilson H. Elkins Professorship award, Dr. Julius Davis established the Center for Research & Mentoring of Black Male Students & Teachers (bowiestate.edu/centerforblackmales) that developed youth programming, community partnerships and research to grow the pipeline for more black males to enter the education profession, where they lack representation. This year, Dr. Davis is one of four USM faculty awarded the Elkins Professorship, which will provide him with $45,000 to advance the center’s work with his leadership team.

“We worked really hard to establish a lot of programming focused on Black male educators throughout the whole pipeline and engage different stakeholders. We put in a lot of work, so it feels good to know that the work was recognized and appreciated,” he said. “We now have a second year to get more support and help institutionalize it. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of that work got disrupted, so to get the funding again, it gives a little bit of a break to continue to do the work and not have to worry about the financial support.”

The Elkins Professorship supports professors and researchers who demonstrate exemplary ability to inspire students and whose professional and scholarly endeavors make a positive impact at their universities, on their students, the entire system and beyond. Established in 1978, it is named for Dr. Elkins, a former Rhodes Scholar and president of the University of Maryland.

In the 2019-20 academic year, the center collaborated with more than 20 partners, published more than 23 scholarly publications, established the Black Male Teachers College for about 20 black male youth and organized the Bowie Educators and Leaders Alliance. While Dr. Davis is proud of the center’s successes, he has his sights on an even greater goal.

“The central focus of this year is to get more in place to institutionalize it, continuing to build what we started and to get the resources we need to make it a national model – that’s bridging research, theory and practice,” he said. “I am proud that we were able to launch the alliance with so many accomplished Bowie State Black male educators and leaders to help support and bring up the next generation. That’s one of the goals of the center: we want there to be this whole network of educators for young men to see themselves and their future.”

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