Georgia

Teri Platt is a Community of Practice Fellow, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge at Civic Nation.

Teri Platt, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration and the Director of the Isabella T. Jenkins Honors Program at Clark Atlanta University. She has over 15 years of higher education teaching experience in courses on American political institutions, public policy, urban politics and planning, and research methodology. Dr. Platt has a long-standing commitment to research and service in areas of civic engagement and community-based participatory research activities. She is currently a Faculty Affiliate with Data Science Initiative of the Atlanta University Center Consortium and the Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development at Clark Atlanta University where she is a social science researcher and lead of the Community Engagement and Dissemination Core. Through her work with the CCRTD, Dr. Platt has received funding to explore the relationship between civic engagement, self-efficacy, and prostate health through the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Platt was a 2021-2022 Fellow with the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement at the University of California, Irvine where she evaluated student voter engagement at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). She is also the Faculty Champion for the Andrew Goodman Foundation HBCU Cohort; a Co-Designer with the Ask Every Student Initiative of the Students Learn, Students Vote coalition; a member of the Executive Council of the Students Learn, Students Vote Coalition; participant in the HBCU Community of Practice for the ALL IN Democracy Challenge; and Faculty Champion for the Democracy Fellows of the Campus Vote Project.

An active member of scholarly associations, Dr. Platt has served on committees and participated in the annual meetings of the American Society for Public Administration, Conference for Minority Public Administrators, Southeastern Conference for Public Administration, National Conference of Black Political Scientists, Midwest Political Science Association, and American Political Science Association.

Dr. Platt resides in Atlanta with her family and is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She provides additional service to the community through her church and the Atlanta Public Schools.

Dr. Cynthia Neal Spence is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Spelman College and Director of the UNCF/Mellon Programs. Her teaching and research interests in the areas of sociology, criminology, law, and violence against women support the Law and Criminology concentration in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Dr. Spence has served in the capacities of Assistant Dean for Freshman Studies, Associate Academic Dean and Academic Dean at Spelman College. Her interest in issues of higher education access, service-learning, gender role socialization and violence against women frame her research, writing, community service involvement, and public speaking. Her publications include “A Woman’s College Perspective on the Education of Men” (2004) New Directors for Student Series and “The Spelman College Total Person Commits to Positive Social Change” (2006), Engaging Departments: Moving Faculty Cultures from Private to Public, Individual to Collective Force for the Common Good. Her most recent publication “Does Race Trump Gender? Black Women Negotiating their Spaces of Intersection in the 2008 Presidential Campaign” is included in the edited volume “Who Should Be First? Feminists Speak Out on the 2008 Presidential Campaign” (2010). As Director of the UNCF Mellon Programs, Dr. Spence creates, manages and oversees a suite of future faculty development and faculty career enhancement programs for UNCF (United Negro College Fund) students and faculty. The UNCF/Mellon Programs are housed at Spelman College and funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation.

In her newest role, Dr. Spence serves as the Faculty Lead for the Spelman College Social Justice Fellows Program. Dr. Spence is committed to helping Spelman women fully actualize their commitment to “making a choice to change the world “through social justice advocacy. She has served as a consultant for the Ford Foundation Institutional Transformation Project, the University of Chicago Provost Initiative on Minority Affairs, the Agnes Scott College Center for Teaching and Learning and the Georgia Department of Corrections. She currently serves as Faculty Trustee on the Spelman College Board of Trustees and is the former chair of the Board of the non-profit agency Men Stopping Violence. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Georgia Women for Change and the Women’s Solidarity Society for the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Dr. Spence is a graduate of Spelman College where she earned her B.A. degree. She earned both the Masters and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers University. She is married to Harold W. Spence and they are the proud parents of two daughters, Christie ’05 and Courtnee ’08.