On June 19, 2021, Elon announced the appointment of Buffie Longmire-Avital as the director of the Black Lumen Project. Longmire-Avital is a professor of psychology and the former coordinator of Elon’s interdisciplinary minor in AAASE. She joined the Elon faculty in 2010 after teaching at City University of New York and New York University. She is a prolific author and speaker and focuses her scholarship on the ways that racial identity, racial microaggressive stress, socioeconomic status, depression, chronic conditions, religion and sexuality are related to both health risk behaviors and coping responses for Black American populations.