Susan Frazier-Kouassi joined the Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) as its Director in 2015. Since the completion of her graduate studies at Boston University, she has had more than 20 years of professional experience in higher education including program and project administration, research, training, and teaching. Before coming to PVAMU, she spent the past 17 years at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, with her most recent position as the Director of Training and Community Engagement at the Prevention Research Center of Michigan in the School of Public Health. Additionally, Dr. Frazier-Kouassi has previously served as co-director of the Future Public Health Leaders Program (a nationally funded undergraduate programs by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); and eight years as the Scientific Administrator for the Program for Research on Black Americans (Institute for Social Research; UM) under the leadership of Dr. James S. Jackson. Her research areas of interest focus on the social determinants of health, especially obesity; youth violence and crime prevention; youth empowerment; and community-academic partnerships.
Dr. Frazier-Kouassi earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Psychology (minor in Public Health) from Boston University and her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Dr. Frazier-Kouassi has lived and/or worked in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Benin.
Dr. Frazier-Kouassi earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Psychology (minor in Public Health) from Boston University and her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Dr. Frazier-Kouassi has lived and/or worked in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Benin.
Stella L. Smith, Ph.D. is the Associate Director for the Minority Achievement, Creativity and High-Ability (MACH-III) Center and an Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling at Prairie View A&M University. A qualitative researcher, her scholarly interests focus the experiences of faculty and administrators of color in higher education; African American females in leadership in higher education; access and inclusion of underserved populations in higher education, and P–20 educational pipeline alignment. For the entirety of her professional career, she has worked in areas that promote access for underrepresented populations to higher education. Dr. Smith is a strong advocate for social justice and passionate about creating asset based pathways of success for underserved students. Dr. Smith’s was recognized with a 2014 Dissertation Award from the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education and as part of the 2019 Class of 35 Outstanding Women Leaders in Higher Education by Diverse Issues in Higher Education. She serves as the Managing Editor the Journal for Minority Achievement, Creativity and Leadership and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Family Strengths. Dr. Smith earned her Ph.D. in Educational Administration with a portfolio in Women and Gender Studies from The University of Texas at Austin.