Orlando McMeans has been named interim president of Southern University in Louisiana. His appointment is effective January 1.
The Southern University System consists of Southern University at New Orleans, Southern University at Shreveport, and Southern University and A&M College – the system’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge that encompasses the Southern University Law Center and the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center (SU Ag Center). Across these locations, Southern University enrolls nearly 11,000 undergraduates and about 2,000 graduate students, according to the most recent federal data.
Since 2019, Dr. McMeans has served as chancellor of the SU Ag Center and dean of the College of Agricultural, Family, and Consumer Sciences at Southern University and A&M College. Before his current role, he spent two decades on the biology faculty at another HBCU, West Virginia State University. He held a series of leadership roles throughout his long tenure, including director of the department of land-grant programs, executive director of the Research and Development Corporation, dean of the Gus R. Douglass Land-Grant Institute, and vice president for research and public service.
An HBCU graduate, Dr. McMeans earned his bachelor’s degree in horticulture from Alabama A&M University. He received his master’s degree and Ph.D. in horticulture from the University of Illinois. After earning his doctorate, he completed postdoctoral studies in genetic engineering at Virginia Tech.
