Morgan State University in Baltimore has selected a group of four individuals as finalists for the position of provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. All of the candidates have been invited to campus for interviews and public forums. Three of the four candidates are African Americans.
Keith H. Jackson is serving as interim provost at Morgan State. He is a professor and chair of the department of physics at the university. Before coming to Morgan State in 2010, Dr. Jackson was vice president for research at Florida A&M University. He is the former associate director of the Center for X-Ray Optics at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dr. Jackson is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University.
Brian L. Johnson is assistant provost and interim vice president for strategic planning and institutional effectiveness at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. Dr. Johnson has been on the staff at Austin Peay State University since 2010. He is the former chief of staff for the president of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dr. Johnson holds a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina. He is the author of Du Bois on Reform: Periodical-based Leadership for African Americans (AltaMira Press, 2005) and W.E.B. Du Bois: Toward Agnosticism (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008).
Oliver G. McGee III is a professor of mechanical engineering at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is the former senior vice president for academic affairs at the United Negro College Fund and served as deputy assistant secretary of transportation for technology policy during the Clinton administration. After leaving government service, he was a member of the faculty at Ohio State University. Professor McGee is a graduate of Ohio State University. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from the University of Arizona.
