NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Dr. Jame’l Hodges, TSU’s assistant dean of Student Life and Engagement, has been named a Maxine Smith Fellow with the Tennessee Board of Regents.
Hodges is the fourth TSU administrator to receive the honor in the last few years.
As a Maxine Smith Fellow, the longtime students affairs administrator will have the opportunity to experience how decisions are made at the TBR senior administrative and governing board levels.
The fellowship was established in 2002 as a TBR central office Geier initiative to provide African-American TBR employees the opportunity to participate in a working and learning environment that enhances work experience and career development. The objective is to increase the academic and professional credentials of the fellows, as well as help to increase the number of qualified applicants from underrepresented groups for senior-level administrative positions at TBR institutions.
“I am honored to have been nominated by President (Glenda) Glover and look forward to representing TSU,” Hodges said. This is an amazing opportunity that will provide me with professional development to prepare me for future career goals as well as expose me to new strategies and approaches in quality assurance and student success at TSU.”
Dr. Maxine Smith, after whom the fellowship is named, was a pioneer in the civil rights movement in Tennessee. She was executive secretary of the Memphis Branch of the NAACP from 1962 to 1995. In 1971, she became the first African American to be elected to the Memphis Board of Education. In 2003, Smith and former President Bill Clinton received the prestigious Freedom Award by the National Civil Rights Museum.
Other former TSU Maxine Smith Fellows are Dr. Cheryl Green, assistant vice president for Student Affairs; Tiffany Cox, director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action; and Tiffany Bellafant Steward, director of New Student Orientation and First-Year Students.
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With more than 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.