Dr. Andia Augustin-Billy is the first Black faculty member to achieve tenure at Centenary College in Louisiana — two centuries after the school was founded, reports KSLA News.
“Why has it taken so long? Why is it that Black academics, especially Black women, are underrepresented in American classrooms?” said Augustin-Billy to KSLA. “Why is it that Centenary has taken 196 years, almost two centuries to tenure its first Black faculty member? ... I think we’re missing out a lot by not having a wide range of teaching voices. It makes education so much richer, so much fuller, so much rounder."
Augustin-Billy, commonly called Dr. A-B by her students, is a professor of French and Francophone studies at the college. She holds a master's degree and Ph.D. in French language and literatures from Washington University in St. Louis as well as a certificate in women, gender, and sexuality studies.
The college will celebrate her and the historic milestone at a convocation on Nov. 4.