Tom Jackson, president of California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt, has announced he will step down from his presidency in August and return to his tenured faculty position within the university’s College of Professional Studies and the College of Extended Education & Global Engagement. Over the course of Dr. Jackson’s five-year tenure as president, Cal Poly Humboldt has experienced significant growth in a number of areas including academic programming, research opportunities, athletics, enrollment, and campus infrastructure.
Before assuming the Cal Poly Humboldt presidency, Dr. Jackson served as president of Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota. He previously served as vice president for student affairs at both the University of Louisville in Kentucky and Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
Dr. Jackson holds a bachelor’s degree in business management and personnel from Southwest State University in Minnesota, a master’s degree in counseling and student personnel from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, and a doctorate in educational management from the University of La Verne in California.
Larry Robinson has announced his plans to step down as president of Florida A&M University, a historically Black university in Tallahassee. He will retain his current appointment as a Distinguished Professor in the university’s School of the Environment.
Dr. Robinson was appointed president of Florida A&M University in 2017, after decades of academic service to the historically Black university. He began his career as a visiting professor in the Environmental Sciences Institute in 1995, and was promoted to director of the institute two years later. He has served in several leadership roles including provost and vice president for academic affairs, vice president for research, and two stints as interim president.
Dr. Robinson is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Memphis, where he majored in chemistry. He holds a doctorate in nuclear chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
David A. Thomas, the twelfth president of historically Black Morehouse College in Atlanta, has announced his plans to retire at the conclusion of the 2024-2025 academic year. During his presidency, he led the college through record-breaking fundraising initiatives, including a current campaign that has raised $240 million so far.
Dr. Thomas was appointed president of Morehouse College in 2018. Before his presidency, he served as the H. Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, dean and William R. Berkley Chair for the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, and assistant professor of business at the University of Pennsylvania. Throughout his career, he has conducted research on organizational management and executive development. He is the co-author of three books, including his most recent, Race, Work, and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019).
Dr. Thomas received his bachelor’s degree in administrative sciences, master’s degree in organizational behavior, and Ph.D. in organizational behavior studies from Yale University. He holds a second master’s degree in organizational psychology from Columbia University in New York.
