The board of trustees of Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina, has named Ronnie Hopkins to serve as the 10th president of the institution. The appointment is effective immediately. Dr, Hopkins was chosen from a field of 107 applicants.
Voorhees College enrolls just over 500 students, according to the latest available data from the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans make up 98 percent of the student body.
“I appreciate the board’s confidence in my ability to lead Voorhees and I am honored to serve as president of the college. I look forward to working with the board, the senior leadership team, faculty, staff, alumni, and the community to develop students to become contributing members of a global society,” said Dr. Hopkins. “In the coming weeks, I will be looking forward to promoting the brand of the college, enhancing our enrollment opportunities, friend-raising, and fundraising and preparing to have students fully involved on campus when they return in August for the 2021-2022 academic year.”
Prior to being named president of Voorhees College, Dr. Hopkins served as interim president, and before that, he was the institution’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. He is a tenured professor of English.
Before coming to Voorhees, Dr. Hopkins served at Benedict College as founding dean of the Freshman Institute and the School of Honors. Other positions in which he served at Benedict included professor of English, chair of the department of English, foreign languages, and mass communication, and dean of the School of Continuing Education, Graduate Studies and Lifelong Learning.
Dr. Hopkins earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a secondary teaching certification from North Carolina Central University. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in English from Michigan State University.
