Theresa Cameron

Theresa Ann Cameron (January 29, 1954 – May 2012) was an African-American academic and author. Born in Buffalo, New York, she became the first African-American woman to be awarded tenure in the College of Design at Arizona State University in 2000. Cameron overcame a difficult childhood in foster care and earned a full scholarship to Boston College before transferring to the State University of New York, Buffalo. She went on to obtain her Doctorate in Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1991. Cameron chronicled her childhood experiences in her book 'Foster Care Odyssey in America: A Black Girl's Story' published in 2002. Unfortunately, her tenure at ASU was cut short when she was fired by ASU President Michael M. Crow in 2008 for plagiarism of syllabi and two other charges, marking the only known case of a tenured faculty member being fired for this offense.