ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA - Winthrop University has selected Chemistry Professor Takita Felder Sumter as its first Provost’s Faculty Fellow.
The Provost’s Faculty Fellows Program provides emerging and current faculty leaders with opportunities to develop and demonstrate administrative leadership. At the same time, fellows contribute full-time faculty perspectives to the work of the Office of the Provost, expanding the collaboration among faculty and administrators.
Fellows’ work includes representing the Office of the Provost on special projects, such as The Winthrop Plan, Winthrop’s strategic plan for 2025, as well as supporting routine office operations.
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Debra Boyd said, “Dr. Sumter was selected as the first Provost’s Faculty Fellow because she has made exceptional contributions to student intellectual development and support, to her discipline’s scholarship through publications and grants, and through her professional stewardship, including her interim leadership of the nutrition department.”
Sumter is a professor of chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Physics, Geology & the Environment at Winthrop. She received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of South Carolina and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine prior to joining the faculty at Winthrop in 2004.
Sumter frequently publishes in refereed scientific journals and makes editorial contributions to professional publications, including Science's Nextwave and American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Today, that portray her interest in the professional development of the next generation of scientists.
Her professional commitment to fostering the interests of minorities in science is seen in her service as chair of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Minority Affairs Committee. She is currently co-leading the society’s Interactive Mentoring Activities for Grantsmanship Enhancement program, a $500,000 National Science Foundation-funded initiative to mentor early-career faculty across the country.
For more information, contact Meg Webber, vice provost for academic quality & innovation, at 803/323-2220 or e-mail her at webberm@winthrop.edu.
