In honor of Black History Month, we want to recognize a truly amazing faculty member in the UTA Chemistry & Biochemistry Department. Dr. Kayunta Johnson-Winters, Associate Professor, is the first African American female faculty member in the department to earn tenure and one of two black faculty members in the UT Arlington College of Science. Dr. Winters serves on the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s #ASBMB, Minority Affairs Committee and Nominating Committee as well as the Faculty Co-Chair of the Women Faculty & Staff Network which helps empower women working at The University of Texas at Arlington by advocating for opportunities to advance their career and professional development. Dr. Johnson-Winters continues to promote awareness for diversity, equity and inclusion issues in higher education. At UTA she served as director of the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation LSAMP program from 2018-20 and organized and advises the College of Science Black Graduate Student Association, which provides extensive mentoring for underrepresented and first-generation STEM students. Because of her passion for an increase in women of color in STEM, her mentoring students in her lab resulted in the first African American student in the department to receive her doctorate degree. That student, Dr. Lindsay Davis who graduated in August 2021, is now a chemistry professor at Langston University.

Dr. Johnson-Winters is well recognized for efforts and has won numerous awards. She recently won the Silver Award on the AM&P Network EXCEL Awards in 2021 for her essay, “Being Black in the Ivory Tower,” which appeared in the ASBMB Today journal. She also received the Professor of the Year Award from the Arlington Sunrise Rotary Club in 2019 and both the Advisor of the Year Award and the Faculty Advisor/Organization of the Year Award for the College of Science Black Graduate Student Association in 2019. UT Arlington and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry are incredibly fortunate to have her as a faculty member and colleague.