Lawrence T. Potter, Jr. has been appointed provost and vice president for academic affairs at Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. He will also teach as a professor of English.
Dr. Potter comes to Lane College from Canisius University in Buffalo, New York, where he was vice president of academic affairs. Earlier, he was chief academic officer and provost at the University of the District of Columbia, a historically Black institution. Dr. Potter’s scholarship focuses on diversity in higher education and African American literary studies.
A third-generation HBCU alumnus, Dr. Potter received his bachelor’s degree in English, religion, and philosophy from Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. in English with a concentration in American and African American literature and culture from the University of Missouri.
Morris Thomas has been named provost and vice president for academic affairs at Wiley University in Marshall, Texas. In addition to his administration role, he will also serve as a professor of higher education administration.
Most recently, Dr. Thomas served as the inaugural assistant provost for digital and online learning and director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Assessment at Howard University in Washington, D.C. There, he was a tenured faculty member in the School of Education and an adjunct lecturer in the School of Business. As an expert in digital learning and instructional design, he has developed several online courses and internationally recognized academic frameworks, such as the ENHANCE Learning Model and the WHOLE Experience Framework.
Dr. Thomas holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from historically Black Fisk University in Nashville, a master’s degree in music performance from New Jersey City University, a master’s degree in instructional technology management from La Salle University in Philadelphia, a master’s degree in educational policy and leadership from Ohio State University, an executive MBA from Howard University, and a Ph.D. in higher education administration from Morgan State University in Baltimore.
Marcus S. Cox has been appointed provost and vice president for academic affairs at Savannah State University in Georgia.
With extensive experience as both an educator and administrator, Dr. Cox most recently served as dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Fayetteville State University, an HBCU in North Carolina. As a historian, he studies African American civil-military history, the modern civil rights movement, African American history, and U.S. history post-1945. He is the author of Segregated Soldiers: Military Training at Historically Black Colleges in the Jim Crow South (Louisiana State University Press, 2013).
An HBCU graduate, Dr. Cox received his bachelor’s degree in marketing and his master’s degree in history from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He holds an MBA from The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina and a Ph.D. in African American history from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
