Dr. Bridget Hollis Staten named SC State’s 2025 Professor of the Year

ORANGEBURG, S.C. – Dr. Bridget Hollis Staten has been named South Carolina State University’s 2025 Professor of the Year.

Hollis Staten is a professor of rehabilitation counseling in SC State’s Department of Human Services. She also serves as coordinator of practicums and internships in the Rehabilitation Counseling Program. 

Last fall, Hollis Staten was awarded a $1.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services to establish a new certificate program for professionals who counsel children and adolescents with disabilities. 

Hollis Staten received a Bachelor of Science in early childhood education from Albany State University, a Master of Arts in rehabilitation counseling from SC State, and a Ph.D. in rehabilitation and administration from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Her primary areas of research are learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities and accommodations, minority issues in counseling, and employment outcomes of people with disabilities. 

A panel of her peers chose Hollis Staten as the university’s overall Professor of the Year from the five college-level Professors of the Year. Hollis Staten is the honoree from the College of Graduate and Professional Studies.

The awards were presented Sunday, March 2, during the SC State Founders Day Program at Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center. 

Representing the other colleges are:

·     Dr. Shanora Glymph Brown, Professor of the Year for the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Transportation. Brown is an associate professor of biology and bioengineering sciences in SC State’s Department of Biological & Physical Sciences. She is a health equity and health disparities researcher and an 1890 U.S. Department of Agriculture/National Institute of Food and Agriculture researcher.

·    Christopher Carraway, Professor of the Year for the College of Business and Information Systems. Carraway is an adjunct assistant accounting professor in SC State’s Department of Accounting and Economics. Callaway is a member of the leadership team for SC State’s My Brother’s Keepers initiative.

·     Ursula Robinson, Professor of the Year for the College of Education, Humanities & Social Services. Robinson is a professor of drama in the Department of Visual & Performing Arts, coordinator of the SC State Drama Program and director of the Henderson-Davis Theatre. As an actor, she garnered national attention for her role in an Amazon Prime movie, "Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black,” and Perry’s current Netflix series, “Beauty in Black.”

·     Dr. LaToya N. Johnson, Professor of the Year for the College of Agriculture, Family and Consumer Sciences. Johnson is an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences and academic coordinator of the Family Consumer Sciences Business Multidisciplinary Program. She also serves as project director for the Agriculture and Family and Consumer Sciences Academy (AgriFCS) . AgriFCS resulted from an $8.7 million “NextGen” grant from the USDA to recruit, train and graduate students for careers in food, agriculture, natural resources and human sciences.