Riché Barnes is the new director of the African American studies program. As a sociocultural anthropologist, Dr. Barnes specializes in the intersection of Black feminist theories, work and family policy, and African Diasporic raced, gendered, and classed identity formation. She is the author of Raising the Race: Black Career Women Redefine Marriage, Motherhood and Community (Rutgers University Press, 2015), which won the 2017 Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association. Before joining the University of Florida faculty in 2022, she taught at Yale University, Mount Holyoke College, Endicott College, and Smith College.
Dr. Barnes is a magna cum laude graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she majored in political science. She holds a master’s degree in urban studies from Georgia State University, as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in anthropology from Emory University in Atlanta.
Marianne Vernetson has been selected to serve as interim director of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service. A University of Florida faculty member since 2019, Vernetson has been serving as the Graham Center’s associate director. She currently serves as a senior lecturer, teaching courses in the public service minor, as well as a capstone course in public service management and leadership. Outside of her academic background, she has nearly two decades of experience in leadership, strategic planning, and economic development in government and the public sector. Previously, she was senior director of strategic projects for New York City’s Times Square Alliance.
Vernetson holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida State University and a master’s degree in public administration from New York University.
Natalia Aleksiun has been appointed interim director of the Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies. Currently holding the title of Harry Rich Professor of Holocaust Studies, Dr. Aleksiun has conducted extensive research on the history of Polish Jews, the Holocaust, Jewish intelligentsia in East Central Europe, Polish-Jewish relations, and modern Jewish historiography. Her work has led to multiple books, including her most recent monograph, Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians Before the Holocaust (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2021). She is currently working on a new book about Jews hiding in western Ukraine during the Holocaust.
Dr. Aleksiun holds doctoral degrees from Warsaw University in Poland and New York University.