PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (December 1, 2022) — Dr. Tiffany Thomas, Ph.D., assistant professor of community development at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) School of Architecture along with three students represented PVAMU at the Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s Inaugural Research Incubator Future of Cities sponsored by CBRE on the campus of Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD in November.
Dr. Tiffany Thomas Assistant Professor, Community Development
As for as the competition, Thomas was thrilled with PVAMU students’ accomplishments, “The level of genius demonstrated by our students warmed my heart, impressed the funders, industry executives and their collegiate peers.” All three students won awards.
Eli Washington, graduate student studying community development and Roy Williams, an Honors College student studying Computer Science, participated in the N. Joyce Payne Research Centers Inaugural Research Incubator: Future of Cities, were first place winners receiving $2,000 each. Williams’ team, YDI, Inc., placed second and received $1,000.
Jared Stubblefield, a second-year undergraduate studying management information systems, won the Innovation Pitch Competition.
Thomas, was in attendance as a competition judge and grant recipient where she presented her funded research, “Grandma’s House: Heirs Properties and Black Land Loss in Texas,” is excited about the opportunity this recognition, and subsequent funding, gives her research.
“I am interested in policy-engaged research, and it is rare to identify a funder (sponsor) that understands that without influencing policy, all we are doing is restating the problem in a new way – without offering a new possibility,” says Thomas. “I was going to submit something ‘safe’ around housing affordability. Still, I was encouraged to submit a meaningful proposal to most Black Americans, especially in the South. Still, as I shared with the panelists, I come to this work as an heir to 4 acres in Louisiana, attempting to navigate the complexities related to the history between Black Americans, the lack of estate planning, and land ownership.”
According to Thomas, The N. Joyce Payne Research Center only funded one proposal centering on Black Americans, real estate, social justice, and HBCUs. “To be the sole recipient of the award cements my position that the community development graduate program and PVAMU should continue pursuing research that impacts the 254 counties in Texas and across the United States, says Thomas, “As stated in the grant proposal, ‘I am creating an infrastructure that does not exist.’ by leveraging a GIS system to quantify and qualify the amount of Black land loss in Texas by way of Heirs.’ I seek to influence federal policy related to heirs’ properties in the long term through multiple agencies.”
Thomas’ research furthers the panther mission of addressing issues and challenges affecting the diverse ethnic and socioeconomic population of Texas and beyond. “Texas has the most significant number of African Americans in the United States, so it is natural for PVAMU to pioneer research that creates a national framework for how the Academy can broadly inform national policy related to housing, community development, and wealth creation, says Thomas. “If we can get it right in Texas, couldn’t we offer the same to the nation?”
Jenna Craig