Thierno Thiam has been named provost and senior vice president of Tuskegee University, a historically Black educational institution in Alabama.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, Tuskegee enrolls some 2,400 undergraduate and 450 graduate students. Black students represent 92 percent of the undergraduate population.
Dr. Thiam’s appointment marks a return to Tuskegee, where he previously served as special advisor to two presidents, professor and chair of the department of history and political science, and co-director of the Ph.D. program in integrative public policy and development.
Most recently, Dr. Thiam served as provost and chief academic officer for another HBCU, Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. Earlier, he was the Duke Endowed Professor of Political Science and dean of JCSU’s College of Liberal Arts. He has previously taught politics and international relations courses at historically Black Howard University, the University of Maryland, and Purdue University in Indiana.
Prior to his original stint at Tuskegee, Dr. Thiam worked for the Institute for State Effectiveness in Washington, D.C. He has extensive experience in international academia, including lecturing positions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. An author of several scholarly publications, his most recent book is Sustainability, Emerging Technologies, and Pan-Africanism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
“Dr. Thiam is empowered to do a full review of the academic offerings at Tuskegee to ensure we remain aligned with societal trends in skills and employment needs in industry and government,” said Tuskegee President Mark Brown. “In addition, Dr. Thiam will have an intense focus on our road map to being a high research-based university with R2 status as well as our desire to grow our undergraduate international student population.”
Dr. Thiam received his Ph.D. in political science from Purdue University.
