Adrien Bennings has been serving as president at Kellogg Community College, one of 28 community colleges in the state of Michigan. Earlier, she was the vice president of administration and finance and chief financial officer at Clovis Community College in New Mexico.
Since 2015, Dr. Ashby has been dean of the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. From 2003 to 2105, Dr. Ashby served on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, she chaired the chemistry department from 2012 to 2015.
Stoute currently serves as vice president for strategic initiatives and chief of staff at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Stoute immigrated to the United States in 2000 to attend Seton Hall University in New Jersey.
Dr. Homes-Sullivan is currently the vice president for student life and dean of students at the college. She came to Lewis & Clark in 2019 from the University of California System, where she served as vice president for student affairs. Earlier, she spent 27 years at the University of Oregon rising to the position of vice president of student life.
Founded in 1805, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts offers undergraduate and graduate programs in the fine arts, innovative exhibitions of historic and contemporary American art, and a world-class collection of American art. Since 2015, Pryor has served as president of the Harlem School of the Arts in New York City.
Dr. Daria Willis currently serves as president of Everett Community College in Washington. Earlier, Dr. Willis was the provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Onondaga Community College of the State University of New York and dean of academic studies at Lee College in Baytown, Texas.
Before being named interim president in July 2021, Jones was executive vice president and chief operating officer for the University of Louisiana System. He was executive vice president for university and business affairs at Northwestern State from 2017 to 2020 and has been a faculty member since 1994.
The will of oil tycoon William Marsh Rice stipulated that only White students would be allowed to enroll at the university bearing his name. From its founding in 1912 to 1965, no Black student was permitted to enroll at Rice University. Next summer, the university will install its first Black president.
Dr. Harden has been serving as vice president for student services at the college since 2016. Earlier, she was vice president for diversity and chief diversity officer at Bellevue College in Washington state and the director of multicultural services and student development at Highline College in Des Moines, Washington.
The three finalists are Colette Pierce Burnette, president of Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas, Roderick Smothers, president of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Daniel K. Wims, provost and vice president for academic affairs and research and a professor of agricultural sciences at Alabama A&M University.
For over three decades, Dr. Morris has served in several roles at Tuskegee University including chief of staff to the president and secretary to the board of trustees. Most recently, Dr. Morris served as the director of the university’s Title III program.
Dr. Tate has been serving as the Education Foundation Distinguished Professor, executive vice president for academic affairs, and provost at the University of South Carolina since July 2020. Professor Tate served as dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education at Washington University in St. Louis.
Most recently, Dr. Powell has served as dean of performing arts and communications at Bethune-Cookman University. During his time at the university, Dr. Powell has served in several leadership roles including interim provost and vice president of institutional advancement.
Since 2017, Carter has been president of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. She spent 25 years in leadership positions at The Juilliard School and later was executive vice president and university counsel at Eastern Kentucky University. She will begin her new duties on July 1.
Since 2016, Dr. Brannon has served as vice president for student services at Mitchell Community College in Statesville, North Carolina. Earlier she held administrative positions at several colleges in the New York metropolitan area.
In 2016, Dr. Hemphill became the seventh president of Radford University in Virginia. Earlier, he served from 2012 to 2016 as the 10th president of West Virginia State University, a historically Black educational institution near Charleston.
Dr. McGadney currently serves as vice president and dean of student advancement at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Prior to coming to Colby, Dr. McGadney was vice president for university advancement at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Vincent Rougeau has been dean of the Boston College Law School since 2011. Prior to his role at Boston College, Rougeau was a tenured professor of law at Notre Dame Law School and served as their associate dean for academic affairs from 1999-2002.
At its peak in the 1960s, Knoxville College enrollments reached 1,200 students. The college lost its accreditation in 1997. By 2015, there were only 11 students enrolled for the spring semester and it suspended all classes for the next academic year. In 2018, the college once again began to offer classes, but only online.
Dr. Burt-Nanna has been serving as vice president of student and academic affairs for South Central College, which has campuses in Faribault and North Mankato, Minnesota. Earlier, she served in various faculty and administrative roles at Baker College in Muskegon, Michigan.