FEATURED SNAPSHOT: African-American faculty who paved the way for others

(Posted Sept. 25, 2009)

UF mathematics education professor Thomasenia Adams (center) is shown with Simon and Verna Johnson of Gainesville at a recent social at the UF President’s House celebrating the 50th anniversary of integration at both UF and the College of Education. Simon Johnson, a retired professor emeritus, was the college’s first African-American professor, and Adams is the first African-American woman professor in education.UF mathematics education professor Thomasenia Adams (center) is shown with Simon and Verna Johnson of Gainesville at a recent social at the UF President’s House celebrating the 50th anniversary of integration at both UF and the College of Education. Simon Johnson, a retired professor emeritus, was the college’s first African-American tenured professor, and Adams is the first African-American woman tenured professor in education.

Johnson served on the College of Education faculty from 1971 until his retirement in 1998. He also headed the college’s minority affairs office. He currently is administrator of the Caring and Sharing Learning Center, a public charter elementary school in east Gainesville.

Adams has served on the education faculty since 1993. Her research interests include the intersection of multiculturalism and the teaching and learning of mathematics. She recently served on a state Department of Education panel charged with updating Florida’s Sunshine State Standards for mathematics at the K-12 level.

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Writer/Photographer

   Larry Lansford, COE News & Communications; 352-273-4137; llansford@coe.ufl.edu

 

 

 

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