UB welcomes PRODiG+ fellows

UB’s support for diversity and inclusion continues with UB's first cohort of SUNY’s PRODiG+ initiative arriving on campus this fall. 

PRODiG+ (Promoting Recruiting Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion and Growth) is a SUNY initiative for increasing faculty diversity and part of the systemwide effort to fulfill SUNY’s explicit commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. The PRODiG+ initiative aims to create a pipeline for more than 400 postdoctoral fellows to join tenure-track faculty positions at SUNY campuses over the next decade.

Specifically, PRODiG+ focuses on two goals: increasing the number and share of excellent diverse faculty committed to advancing the ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion; and strengthening the pipeline for retention and support of PRODiG+ scholars. 

“We at UB are so excited to participate in the PRODiG+ program and help realize SUNY’s ambitious goals for increasing tenure-line faculty diversity in recruitment and retention,” says Seval Yildirim, vice provost for inclusive excellence and UB’s chief diversity officer.

Yildirim’s office, the Office of Inclusive Excellence, is the central office at UB overseeing the success of the PRODiG+ program and serves as a central hub for supporting the PRODiG+ fellows. Yildirim recently hosted a welcome reception for the fellows, providing an opportunity for the UB community to meet the fellows and get to know about their outstanding accomplishments.

UB's first class of PRODiG+ fellows:

Fabian Barch joins the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology in the Graduate School of Education. He is a scholar of race and ethnicity, wealth inequality and education. He holds an MPhil and PhD in sociology of education from New York University and a BA from Washington University in St. Louis. In his research, Barch is interested in understanding how access to high-quality education is affected by externalities relating to socio-economic status, geography, and race and ethnicity, among other variables. His dissertation, “Estimating the Effects of Student Houselessness on Learning Outcomes and Exploring Variation,” explores the association between housing instability and student learning outcomes for third-through-eighth graders in New York City and in school districts across the country. The work was supported by an AERA Dissertation Grant.    

Quintin Gorman joins the Department of Sociology and Criminology in the College of Arts and Sciences. Gorman holds an MA and PhD in sociology from Rice University and a BA, summa cum laude, from McMurry University. His dissertation was titled “The Sociopolitical Implications of Blacks’ Belief in the Significance of Systemic Racism.” Gorman’s research interests include racial attitudes, racial identity, second class citizenship and social psychology. Gorman is no stranger to UB, as he visited campus as a VITAL scholar last fall.

Khadejah Ray joins the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy in the Graduate School of Education. Ray holds an MS and PhD in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and a BA in sociology from UCLA. Her dissertation was titled “Disciplinary Dissonance? Examining Black Doctoral Students’ Refusal to Sociology’s Racial Contract.” Ray’s research interests include black feminism, sociology of education, critical theories of race and racism, and experiences of black students and faculty in higher education. Ray also was a VITAL scholar last fall.

Steven Lewis joins the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Science in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He holds a PhD in computational cell biology, anatomy and pathology from UB and a BS from Nazareth College. His dissertation was titled “Improving Virtual Gross Anatomy: Enhancing Information Content of Cadaveric CT Scans.” Prior to the PRODiG+ program, Lewis was a postdoctoral research associate in the Jacobs School. 

Yildirim says UB has already begun the process of seeking approval from SUNY to recruit six more PRODiG+ fellows for the fall 2025 semester.