Lawrence T. Potter Jr. was named the next dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at University of La Verne in California. The university, located east of Los Angeles, enrolls about 5,200 undergraduates and 3,500 graduate students. African Americans make up 6 percent of the student body and Latinos are nearly half of all undergraduates.
Dr. Potter was dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Jackson State University in Mississippi. Earlier in his career, he was associate dean and chief diversity officer at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He has also served on the faculty at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and Western Michigan University.
Dr. Potter is a magna cum laude graduate of Stillman College, a historically Black educational institution in Alabama, where he triple majored in English, philosophy, and religion. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Missouri.
