Law School dean

N.C. Central University welcomes a new dean of the School of Law, Phyliss Craig-Taylor, in July.

Craig-Taylor most recently served as associate dean for academics at Charlotte School of Law in Charlotte and worked as a law professor at NCCU from 2000 to 2006. Her areas of teaching include property, real estate finance, advanced issues in poverty, land use, land loss, women and the law, and professional responsibility.

“The law school has long been noted for its focus on public service and on meeting the needs of people and communities that are underserved by the legal profession,” said NCCU Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Debbie Thomas. “We are confident that Dean Craig-Taylor will continue this commitment.”

Craig-Taylor has published numerous articles on land loss in the African-American community and discrimination in the application of laws for minority groups, including women. She is currently writing a book, “Open Door Days on the Last Plantation: An Analysis of Property Loss, Race and Citizenship.”

A graduate of the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, where she completed both her undergraduate degree and law degree, she later served as a partner in the law firm of England & Bivens and as a judicial clerk for the Alabama Supreme Court. She later earned a master of laws degree at Columbia University.

She succeeds Raymond C. Pierce, who has been dean of the School of Law since 2005 and is returning to private practice.

From Staff Reports

Local and national university presidents sent a letter to President Barack Obama and congressional leaders Tuesday, calling for an easier path to permanent resident status for foreign students.

The letter, signed by more than 100 university leaders from across the country, comes in conjunction with a report released by the bipartisan group Partnership for a New American Economy, which details the importance of immigrant ingenuity to the economy.

Among its findings, the report, titled “Patent Pending: How Immigrants are Reinventing the American Economy,” found that out of the 1,500 patents awarded to the top 10 patent-producing universities in the United States, more than three-quarters had at least one foreign inventor. Additionally, these inventors represented 88 countries.

The letter was addressed to Obama, as well as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House John Boehner, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

In it, university leaders bemoaned “our inability under current United States immigration policy to retain and benefit from many of the top minds educated at our universities” and called for “a bipartisan solution that ensures our top international graduates have a clear path to a green card, so they can stay and create new American jobs.”

Several local university leaders signed the letter, including Duke University’s Richard Brodhead, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Holden Thorp, N.C. State’s Randolph Woodson, UNC Charlotte’s Philip Dubois and Wake Forest’s Nathan Hatch.

Staff writer Lewis Kendall

Kimberly Jenkins, the technology pioneer who two years ago helped launch Duke University’s initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, steps down July 1 as its leader now that it has reached a new level of prominence on campus.

Jenkins, a Duke alumna and former trustee who previously worked alongside Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and other prominent entrepreneurs, will leave Duke to join a new start-up venture. She has been serving as senior adviser to the president and provost for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Robert Calderbank, dean of the natural sciences in the College of Arts and Science, will become interim director of the campus initiative, which in May received a $15 million gift from trustee David M. Rubenstein to support several activities designed to spur start-up ventures by faculty, staff, students and alumni.

“I’m an entrepreneur at heart, so we agreed when I started that my role would be to help get this initiative off the ground, weave it into the mission of the university and assemble a team of great people to take it forward,” Jenkins said. “We’re now in a great place and I’m excited to see how everyone at Duke will carry on this work, from training undergraduates and graduate students to start their own businesses and social ventures to encouraging faculty to move their discoveries into the marketplace to create new jobs and industries.”

Jenkins said her team recently worked with faculty, students, alumni and others to develop a strategic plan for Duke to become a national leader in this arena. The initiative has outlined a new undergraduate curriculum, established a Duke in Silicon Valley program, piloted several internships and incubator programs and engaged thousands of Duke alumni in regional “pitch events” and other activities.

In addition, Duke undergraduates can now live in a special dorm focused on entrepreneurship, whose residents created several businesses this past year, or participate in an annual Start-Up Challenge that awards prizes to the best entrepreneurial ideas.

From Staff Reports