Cheryl Johnson-Odim

Cheryl Johnson-Odim is an American historian. She taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern University and Loyola University Chicago. She became dean at Columbia College Chicago and in 2007 was made provost of Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois.

Early life

Cheryl Johnson-Odim was born 30 April 1948, in Youngstown, Ohio. After the family moved to New York City, she attended P.S. 136 and Springfield Gardens Junior High School, before graduating from Andrew Jackson High School in Queen. She then studied at the City College of New York for two years before transferring to Youngstown State University,where she earned a B.A. cum laude in history in 1972. She completed her PhD at Northwestern University in 1978. . She pursued African history as her area of specialization when she began her doctoral studies at Northwestern University. In 1975, she conducted research in Nigeria as a Fulbright Scholar in support of her doctoral dissertation. Her early exposure to global and African-related issues contributed to her later academic focus.