Having served UofL for nearly a decade, including as executive vice president and university provost since 2022, and dean of the School of Dentistry prior, Bradley expressed his enthusiasm for leading the university.

“My heart is here, and I’m very ready and enthusiastic about moving this university forward and continuing our strong momentum,” he said.

Bradley highlighted several successes such as record-breaking enrollment exceeding 24,000, on-campus living numbers and a 94.1% retention rate, a 3% jump that reflects strong student success.

Further emphasizing the university’s growth, Bradley noted UofL’s growing partnership with elected officials in Frankfort on state-funded construction projects, UofL Health’s expansion, the opening of a rural cancer center in Bullitt County and the beginning of a strategic plan designed to shape the university’s future through 2030.

“People change, but our mission does not,” Bradley said.�� ��

Personally, Bradley is looking forward to supporting research clusters in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, strengthening partnerships with the city to boost economic development, leading the redevelopment of the Cardinal Center property and improving student success—particularly for first-generation students.

“As a first-generation student myself, 38% of the students coming to this university are first-generation students and we are really moving the needle of social mobility,” he said. “My personal goal is to continue to increase enrollment, to increase our retention efforts and to increase our six-year graduation rates, all which have been rising steadily over the years.”

Bradley plans to conduct listening tours soon and be more visible on campus.

“I want to be seen as being part of the community,” he said. “The most fun part of the job is when I’m with the students. That’s why I get up every morning.”

Acknowledging upcoming challenges and priorities for the university leadership, Bradley addressed concerns about the new state legislation relating to initiatives regarding diversity, equity and inclusion at public colleges and universities in the state.

“Our intent is to comply with the law while clearly continuing our mission to make every person feel they belong and are part of our community,” Bradley said. ��

Bradley also identified potential financial challenges including federal cuts to National Institutes of Health indirect cost rates and the approaching NIL (name, image, likeness) settlement ruling. In response, the university is conducting scenario planning and has implemented a temporary hiring pause to “protect our mission and our people.”

Bradley signed a three-year contract, with a review period after two years. Learn more about Bradley on the .

Strayhorn is a professor of education and psychology, director of the Center for the Study of HBCUs and principal investigator of��The Belonging Lab��at Virginia Union University. He also serves as Diversity Scholar-in-Residence at Harrisburg Area Community College. As president and CEO of , a minority-owned business, Strayhorn partners with hundreds of colleges, universities, corporations and agencies each year to enhance culture, build inclusive environments and boost belonging.

UofL News caught up with Strayhorn to talk about his work, along with his thoughts around Juneteenth, the day commemorating��the delayed emancipation of enslaved people in the United States on June 19, 1865.

UofL News:��How has our understanding of Juneteenth shifted the past few years?

Strayhorn: The recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday is important because we give time to those things that matter. It creates a collective pause to think and reflect, certainly acknowledging the progress we’ve made as well as raise up some of the continuing challenges that we face so that we can together envision a future that’s brighter and more equal and more just. It commemorates our freedom and our ever-evolving quest toward racial justice in this country.

UofL News: It’s been said Juneteenth hopes to inspire change through vision, voice and vote. How do you see activism and engagement bringing change?

Strayhorn: We know that we have some social miseries and nightmares that disproportionately impact communities of color. Right now, with, anti-LGBTQI+ policies, state sponsored violence against Black and Brown communities, police brutality, shameful public killings of African American men and women and trans people, and people who live at the intersection of all these identities, we need to create more change. Juneteenth provides an opportunity to reflect on our progress, being honest about our current status, and then finding appropriate, effective but nonviolent ways to champion the cause of racial justice.

UofL News: In our society today, where do you see a welcome and positive intersection of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging?

Strayhorn: We need more of what we know works well in fostering conditions for racial justice, for collective healing, for sense of belonging. That inclusive environment happens at culturally diverse institutions like Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Black museums and cultural centers, and Black churches, places which have for a long time been safe havens. This is not just for Black students, but for disenfranchised white students, for first generation students, for low-income students, for international students.

In 2020, during Black Lives Matter, when the world was on fire, the people with water to help tame the flame weren’t court appointed, certified firefighters. It was the people who had fire in their belly and could speak passionately about George Floyd’s killing. It was the millennial, the Gen-Zer, who could take the mic at the rally and help us realize, wow, the future is looking pretty bright because we have some people who are reaching across the aisle and across racial divides and saying, ‘Not on my watch.’

UofL News: How can universities and students at universities best exhibit leadership in commemorating Juneteenth?

Strayhorn: What we need to bring these lessons to life are committed, courageous, socially conscious faculty, students and leaders who can champion a cause and create change.

Everybody wants to belong and it’s what we share in common because we’re human. The message of Eric Garner, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others is this implication that some people don’t belong here, and that some people’s lives don’t matter. I am profoundly committed on a personal, professional and even a spiritual and metaphysical level to fight that message and to say that we all belong here.

We’re all worthy. We are enough and never too much, but we only get there if we get there together.

Learn more and register for one of the ��sponsored by the Office of the President, Office of Institutional Equity, College of Business and the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA). Learn more on the .��

United around this year’s theme of ‘Power and Policy’, organizers hope to inspire change through vision, voice and vote.

“Juneteenth is a prime example of how policy change can shift power from the oppressor to the oppressed,” said Riece Hamilton, president of the UofL Black Faculty/Staff Association. “We want the campus and community to recognize the force we have when we collectively come together for the good of all. We understand that fighting against injustice for any group of people benefits all groups of people.”

The week of events leading up to Juneteenth will kick-off with a lecture by author, activist, educator and historian who will deliver the keynote titled, “Free at Last?”

As chairperson of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, Berry led the charge for equal rights and liberties of all Americans during four U.S. presidential administrations. She also served as assistant secretary for education in the U.S. Department of Health, ����ֱ�� and Welfare.

Berry is a founder of the monumental Free South Africa Movement (FSAM), and received the Nelson Mandela award from the South African Government for her role in organizing the FSAM, raising global awareness of South African injustice that helped to end over 40 years of apartheid.

A trailblazer for women and African Americans, she became the first woman to lead a major research university as chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder. She now teaches the history of American law and social policy as the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania.

Visit the����to learn more and register for the following events:

Keynote: Mary Frances Berry
June 13, noon;
*streaming available

A panel discussion focused on Juneteenth, cash bail, and racial justice work.
June 14, noon;
*streaming available

Celebratory luncheon and Black business owners vendor fair
June 16, 11:30 a.m.; near��

A tour around campus designed to highlight historical points around UofL relative to Blacks/African Americans
June 17, noon;

Step into the narrative and take a journey through the African American experience; free admission.
June 18, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.;

at Burnett Avenue Church
Join us for a virtual worship service to give thanks for how far we have come and the blessings in store for the future.
June 19, 11 a.m.; virtual event��

At the Crossroads: A History of Black Health in Louisville
This exhibit explores the establishment of health care facilities by and for Black Louisvillians in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
On display now; Ekstrom Library

The Black Faculty/Staff Association along with the Commission on Diversity and Racial Equity (CODRE), Commonwealth Credit Union, Cultural Center, Office of Community Engagement, Office of Diversity and Equity, Office of the President, UofL Standing Up for Racial Justice (UofL SURJ) and various university sponsors are presenters of the second annual Juneteenth week of ‘Power and Policy’.

“This week should be a reminder that the people hold the power now and forever; it is what we do with it that matters,” Hamilton said.

But beyond the gridiron, there are numerous examples of the University of Louisville working with the University of Kentucky in research that holds promise to improve life not only for Kentuckians but for people throughout the United States and around the world.

Currently, there are��20 projects funded at a total of almost $11 million in this year alone that involve collaboration between the two universities. Agencies funding these projects include the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, NASA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Transportation, the United States Geological Survey, several state agencies and more. Researchers in medicine, engineering, psychology, physics, education and the geosciences are working together to advance the body of knowledge in their fields and subfields.

“On the playing field, we are fierce competitors, but in the laboratory, we work together to bring new solutions to questions that plague our state, nation and world,” said UofL Acting President Neville Pinto, PhD. “As researchers and academicians, we put athletic rivalry aside and collaborate in research and development across a wide spectrum.”

The scope of collaboration being carried out covers a wide range of fields, from providing primary health care services and training future physicians through Area Health ����ֱ�� Centers across the Commonwealth to development of a paradigm-shifting therapy for humans exposed to radiation.

Other joint research is examining ways to power the Kentucky bioeconomy for a sustainable future; studying systems biochemistry with the goal of achieving a mechanistic understanding of non-small cell lung cancer; developing better ways to predict deterioration of asphalt and asphalt-overlaid concrete pavement roadways throughout the state; modeling urban watershed runoff in storm events; and more.

One example of UofL-UK collaboration is the Kentucky Multi-scale Manufacture and Nano Integration Node (KY MMNIN), one of just 16 academic sites across the United States that make up the prestigious National Nanotechnology Coordinate Infrastructure network funded by the National Science Foundation. This 10-year project funded at a total of $7 million leverages more than 25 years of expertise in the fields of micro- and nano-fabrication and three-dimensional additive manufacture, otherwise known as “3-D printing.”

The project’s principal investigator is Kevin Walsh, PhD, UofL , and Associate Dean for Research in the J.B. Speed School of Engineering. Walsh also is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

The goal of the MMNIN project is to bring 3-D additive manufacturing and micro/nanotechnology to the invention and creative marketplace.

“The next generation of revolutionary products and solutions will require the combination and effective integration of a diverse set of 3-D manufacturing processes spanning various lengthscales ranging from nanotechnology to 3-D printing,” Walsh said. “Users want easy access to these resources and expertise to rapidly and efficiently fabricate their creative ideas.”

With both standard fabrication and 3-D additive processes, the KY MMNIN initiative provides users with unconventional and nationally unique tools to realize their inventions, Walsh said.

One such user is a part-time lecturer in the Speed School and President/CEO of MEMStim LLC. Johnson’s company is developing ways to improve and lower the cost of cochlear implants for people who are deaf.

Johnson’s Louisville-based start-up uses advanced manufacturing to fabricate cochlear implants in the Cardinal cleanroom, a controlled manufacturing facility that is one of the eight facilities of the KY MMNIN.

The complex circuitry in cochlear implants currently must be manufactured by hand, leading to higher costs. Johnson believes that if she can improve the manufacturing process, she could then lower the cost of cochlear implants and allow more people in need of implants to afford them.

Johnson is using a machine-driven process to reduce the need for costly handmade manufacturing of implant circuitry. Using the diverse toolset of the KY MMNIN cleanroom, Johnson can design different features on the electrode arrays needed for cochlear implants. Her process has never been done before in the manufacture of these types of devices. Her circuitry for cochlear implants is still in the testing phase with the goal of one day achieving FDA approval for use in humans.

“Being able to improve the technology is my motivation to improve the quality of life for patients,” she said.

Currently, more than 40 percent of published studies in leading journals are collaborative in nature. Research funding favors collaboration as well; both government agencies and private foundations have increasingly structured requests for proposals to favor collaboration.