Morgan Faculty and Staff Earn Recognition for Leadership, Scholarship and Community Impact

Honors Spanning Public Health, Social work, Esports and Higher Education Leadership Reflect the Reach of Morgan Expertise

 
Across disciplines and beyond the boundaries of campus, Morgan State University faculty and staff are earning recognition for work that strengthens communities, advances their professions and creates new pathways for others. Recent honors spanning public health, social work, digital engagement and higher education leadership underscore a shared commitment to pairing expertise with service — and demonstrate how Morgan people are shaping institutions, ideas and opportunities at the local and national levels.

Advancing Public Health Through Scholarship and Service 

Lorece Edwards, Dr.PH., professor of public health in Morgan State University’s School of Community Health and Policy, has been named the Lyra Legacy Foundation’s 2026 Excellence in Education and Community Service Award recipient. The honor recognizes Edwards as a public health champion and community-engaged scientist whose scholarship and service have made a meaningful difference in the lives of others.

Edwards’ research examines adolescent health in historically redlined neighborhoods, community violence, historical trauma, women’s health, risk and the structural, social and political determinants of health. She has shared her work at international, national and local conferences and workshops and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Her forthcoming book with Johns Hopkins University Press, “Redlining Childhood: The Survivornomics of America’s Neglect Neighborhood,” extends that scholarship, while her Perceived Risk Hierarchy Theory is the subject of a pending patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The recognition adds to a distinguished record of public service that includes Edwards’ selection among Maryland’s Top 100 Women in 2013, 2016 and 2019. The Lyra Legacy Foundation will honor her during its “A Legacy of Giving Gala” in October at Live! Hotel & Casino. The nonprofit supports minority communities through scholarships, mentoring and workforce-development programs for young people.

Elevating Equity in Social Work Education

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has selected Jerome H. Schiele, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Ph.D. and D.S.W. Department in Morgan’s School of Social Work, to deliver the Carl A. Scott Memorial Lecture at the organization’s 72nd Annual Conference, scheduled for Oct. 22–25 in Atlanta.

Named for pioneering social work educator and CSWE leader Carl Anderson Scott, the annual lecture honors a lasting commitment to equity and social justice in social work. It spotlights scholars and leaders whose work advances the well-being of individuals and communities while bringing innovative perspectives on diversity, equity and inclusion to social work education.

A nationally recognized scholar with more than 35 years of experience in higher education, Schiele focuses his research and teaching on oppression and antiracism studies, social welfare history and policy analysis, and social work education. He is especially noted for his foundational contributions to Afrocentric Social Work Theory, which centers African and African diasporic cultural perspectives in the study of human behavior, social conditions and social work practice. His selection for the memorial lecture recognizes a career devoted to expanding the field’s understanding of equity, inclusion and social justice. 

Turning Digital Innovation into Opportunity

Tarrin Morgan II, director of marketing and digital engagement in the Office of Residence Life and Housing and an esports professor, has been named to the Baltimore Business Journal’s 2026 “40 Under 40” class. The annual recognition honors emerging Greater Baltimore leaders for their professional accomplishments, entrepreneurial success, community commitment and work to address challenges facing the region.

A 2013 Morgan graduate, Morgan leads marketing, branding and digital communications that help students remain informed, connected and engaged in the residential experience. His impact also reaches well beyond his current role. From 2020 to 2023, he served as Morgan’s founding esports director and head coach and established MSU Bears Esports during the COVID-19 pandemic as a new avenue for student engagement. Under his leadership, the program grew into one of the nation’s leading HBCU esports programs, secured 13 championships — including the 2023 MEAC Esports Championship — and generated approximately $500,000 in scholarships, competition winnings and donations.

Morgan has extended that work through REAL digitizED, the community organization he founded to connect underserved youth with higher education, technology, media and entrepreneurship through gaming, STEAM education, digital literacy and career-readiness programming. Since 2024, the organization has reached more than 1,500 young people across Baltimore and Annapolis, helping participants — particularly young Black men — envision pathways to college, technology careers and leadership.

Expanding the Pipeline for Higher Education Leadership

Christopher J. Mathis, Ph.D., interim associate dean and professor of management in Morgan’s Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management, has been selected as a visiting fellow in Harvard University’s Administrative Fellowship Program. Mathis is the first faculty member from an HBCU to participate in the program.

From September 2026 through June 2027, Mathis will take part in a nine-month professional-development experience designed to complement his work at Morgan. The fellowship includes seminars, speaker series, case studies, coaching and mentoring circles focused on strengthening management and administrative skills, supporting self-assessment and advancing career development. Harvard faculty members, senior administrators, certified leadership coaches and former fellows lead the program’s learning experiences.

Established in 1989, Harvard’s Administrative Fellowship Program promotes leadership opportunities and careers in higher education for professionals who support the principles of diversity, inclusion and equal employment opportunity. Mathis’ selection brings a Morgan perspective to that leadership community while creating new opportunities to apply insights from the fellowship to his teaching and administrative work.

A Collective Record of Morgan Impact

Together, these achievements reflect the breadth of talent across Morgan and the many forms that leadership can take: producing scholarship grounded in community needs, advancing equity within a profession, using technology to open doors for young people and preparing to guide the future of higher education. Each recognition honors an individual accomplishment, while collectively affirming Morgan’s growing influence through faculty and staff whose work reaches far beyond the University.

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