Nyumburu director connects public health, culture and Black joy in new role
On one side of Adele H. Stamp Student Union is the Nyumburu Cultural Center, the University of Maryland’s home for Black culture since 1971. Last Friday, members of the Black Association for Economics Majors flung water balloons and dumped water buckets on one another.
For Stephen Thomas, the new Nyumburu interim director, he has the most fun watching Black students gather outside his office in what he calls “Black joy.”
Thomas started working at the university in 1986 as an assistant professor. Afterwards, he spent time at Emory University in Atlanta during the HIV pandemic. He then started working at the University of Pittsburgh as an endowed professor, where he ran the University Center for Minority Health.
In 2010, he got a call from the UMD dean of the School of Public Health recruiting him and four other members of his Pittsburgh team to work at this university. While teaching at UMD, he co-founded the Maryland Center for Health Equity, a research center aimed at eliminating racial and ethnic health inequalities.
Sixteen years later, Thomas received a phone call from then-Vice President for Belonging Georgina Dodge, who retired in July. Dodge asked if he could be the next interim director for the cultural center after former interim director Psyche Williams-Forson’s contract ended.
“What are you asking me to do?” Thomas recalled thinking during the phone call.
Despite his initial hesitation, Thomas recognized the similarities between his current work in public health and the task of leading a cultural center.
“In public health, we’ve already moved to recognizing the importance of culture and…what we call the social determinants of health,” Thomas said. “In order to reach the people and build trust, we need to know where they’ve come from.”
“But more than anything, I was just honored to be asked,” said.
Thomas said his new position as a shepherd for the students, staff and institution of the Nyumburu Cultural Center, which he views as a “treasure” with “an inheritance to be passed on.”
“The whole arc of the civil rights movement is reflected in that building,” he said.
Thomas had two conditions before he’d accept the role. First, if he was made chair of the search committee because of the interim position, he would not be eligible for the position. Second, Nyumburu continued to report to then-Assistant Vice President for Belonging, Stephanie Chang, even after Dodge retired and Chang took over as interim Vice President.
In a statement to The Black Explosion, Chang said that the role for permanent director is posted and actively reviewing applicants. She mentioned that once finalists were selected that the university community will be able to share feedback before any final decisions are made.
On the other side of STAMP is the David C. Driskell Center, a building dedicated to collecting and presenting Black art.
Thomas teaches the class, “Redesigning Health Care: Developing a Clinic to Meet Community Needs,” where students learn how to create healthcare solutions for strangers based on empathy. To Thomas, students can understand how not to judge people by first learning how not to judge art.
Earlier that day, Thomas guided his class of around 20 students around the various artworks in the Driskell Center’s gallery. For each painting they’d stop, take in the work and record their observations. Only after they’ve understood their initial impressions would they read the caption accompanying the piece.
“Now they’re going to meet somebody in a laundromat, at a bus stop. Someone unemployed. They’ve met homeless people, and they’ve interviewed them,” Thomas said. “You can’t look at them like they’re a thing. You listen for their story. If you can pull a story out of that piece of art, then maybe you can tell the story of some of the people they’re going to meet out on the street.”
After visiting the Driskell Center during the interview, Thomas entered STAMP, where members of the UMD community attempted to break a world record for most sock puppets worn in one venue in honor of Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets.
Thomas showed up after all the sock puppeteers left but he did “adopt” some sock puppets left behind, giving them a new home in Nyumburu.
Vania McBean, the associate director of Information Technology, Client and Workplace Services in student affairs at UMD, recalls her experience with Nyumburu while talking to Thomas in STAMP.
“I was comp-sci in 1992, and it was a lonely place back then…But [Nyumburu] made it home,” she said.
Now her children go to this university.
Last year, the Nyumburu student ambassadors demanded the office of Belonging extend the former director Williams-Forson’s contract until a new permanent director is found.
While the group is saddened that Williams-Forson ultimately couldn’t stay in the position, they look forward to working with Thomas, according to Nyumburu student ambassador Jade Blackmoore.
“We’re just hoping that as we get to know him and he gets to know us, we’re able to build that same relationship that we had with Dr. Williams-Forson with him as well,” Blackmoore said.
“The center is our home away from home, and we hope that we’ve welcomed him into our home, and we hope that we’re able to grow close to him as well.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled Stephen Thomas’ name. This article has been updated.