President Joe Biden named Taraji P. Henson and Chris Paul to the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities yesterday. Both Taraji P. Henson and Chris Paul will be on a team of nine men and women who will be on the advisory board.
President Joe Biden has named actor Taraji P. Henson and NBA player Chris Paul to a presidential advisory board on historically Black colleges and universities. They will be among the nine men and women that Biden is appointing to the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The goal of this advisory is to advance the goal of the HBCU Initiative, which was established by the Carter Administration, to increase the capacity of HBCUs to provide the highest-quality education to their students and continue serving as engines of opportunity.
Taraji P. Henson and Chris Paul will be joining Tony Allen, the president of Delaware State University, and Glenda Glover, the president of Tennessee State University, who are serving, respectively, as chairperson and vice-chairperson of the board, which was established during the Carter administration.
Henson is a Washington, D.C. native who studied acting at Howard University, a historically Black school and the alma mater of Vice President Kamala Harris. Paul is a 12-time NBA All-Star with the Phoenix Suns and a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
Presidents of five other HBCUs will also join the board. They are Virginia State University, Norfolk State University in Virginia, Alabama State University, Prairie View A&M University in Texas, and Dillard University in New Orleans. Lisa Jackson, who became the EPA’s first Black administrator in the Obama administration, and United Airlines President Brett Hart will also join the board. Biden also intends to appoint Paige Blake, a 20-year-old junior at Bowie State University, an HBCU in Maryland.
The White House stated that the Biden administration has committed $5.8 billion dollars in support to HBCUs through a combination of pandemic relief funding, grants, and forgiving capital improvement debt.
