N'Dri Assie-Lumumba, associate professor of Africana studies, has been named to membership in the World Academy of Art and Science in recognition of her "outstanding contributions to the world of scholarship and practice on the role of the importance of women in higher education." Membership in the academy is by nomination only and is based on international reputation in a candidate's discipline.

Assie-Lumumba came to Cornell in 1991 as a Fulbright senior research fellow and Ford Foundation/Africana studies fellow. She served as director of the Cornell Program on Gender and Global Change in 1995-96, and she has been a member of the United Nations Committee on Development Policy since 2001. She is a member of the Cornell graduate fields of education, international development, international agriculture and rural development, and the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs.

Founded in 1960, the World Academy of Art and Science is an informal network of some 500 fellows of diverse nationalities and intellectual disciplines, chosen for their eminence in art, the natural and social sciences and the humanities. Academy activities focus on the social consequences and policy implications of knowledge and challenges confronting people in a rapidly changing global civilization.