Dr. Dwight Mullen spent his career in public service as a UNC-Asheville professor in Political Science and recently retired. During his tenure, Dr. Mullen taught thousands of students, 40 percent of whom came from Western North Carolina, giving him a unique 35-year relationship and perspective with the residents of our region. While at UNCA, Dr. Mullen also served as Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and as a Professor of Africana Studies. 

Dr. Mullen is the founder of the State of Black Asheville, which began in 2008 as an undergraduate research project for one of his classes. They researched open-source data sets in Education, Criminal Justice, Economics, and Health then presented their findings at a weekend conference open to all students and the wider community. The intent was to provide data and a sense of urgency to county and city-wide strategic plans as well as offer the students an opportunity to see how policies and institutions impact citizens and residents over the long-term. These findings became indicators of the disparities in many social determinants of health and is just one example of how Dr. Mullen’s work has taken the long view to address opportunities and challenges with creative, but measured, risk-taking ideas that are rooted in data.