Epilogue: African American Distinguished and Endowed Professors Paving the Path for the Next Generation: An Epilogue

An exhaustive search of the social science and popular literature provides few details on the work lives, journeys, successes and challenges experienced by a unique population in higher education—African American distinguished and endowed professors. To fill the void in the literature focusing on this cohort, this volume seeks to underscore powerful personal narratives of African American faculty members who have not only been successful, but who have also attained academe’s holy grail—the vaunted titles “distinguished” and “endowed”. Even though each contributor has experienced extraordinary career and professional successes, it is their individual and collective journeys chronicling how they work on a daily basis to pave a pathway and provide fodder for the next generation of aspiring researchers and scholars that appears to frame their respective narratives. These chapter authors offer key strategies, practical advice, and sage wisdom. Through their powerful narratives and counter narratives that highlight aspects of their lives within the halls of the ivory tower. It is our sincere desire that you will examine these chapters in their entirety and then return to them in order to “cherry pick” the information that provides the most meaning for your specific journey towards your chosen destination