Finalists named for Grambling State president

The candidate field for Grambling State University’s next leader is down to three.

Either Gregory Ford, Martin Lemelle, or Monica Williams will become the 11th president of GSU after the selection committee named them as finalists Wednesday.

The committee interviewed six semifinalists Tuesday and Wednesday on the Grambling campus, where the candidates also held meetings with student, faculty and staff, and alumni groups.

Now the search heads back to Baton Rouge, where the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors will interview the finalists and make its selection on Feb. 22.

Ford is a neuroscientist, a tenured associate professor of biology and former vice chancellor at Southern University at New Orleans. He grew up in Grambling and received his undergraduate degree at GSU.

Lemelle is a former top-level administrator at GSU, having served as executive vice president and COO from 2016 to 2021. He’s now in a similar role at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

He also ran for Congress in Louisiana’s 5th congressional district in 2020, a race won by the late Luke Letlow.

Williams is foundation president/CEO and vice president of advancement at the University of North Texas at Dallas. She’s also served as an administrator at Prairie View A&M University and Texas Southern University, two Historically Black Colleges and Universities that are athletic conference mates with GSU in the SWAC.

They’re each seeking to succeed Rick Gallot, who after seven years at the helm of GSU took over the presidency of the UL System on Jan. 1.

Wednesday was the last stop for the selection committee, a mixture of UL System board members and advisory members from the Grambling community.

After finishing the interviews, the committee met in closed-doors executive session for two and a half hours before emerging with their list of finalists.

“We had very thorough and thoughtful discussions about the candidates,” said Gallot, who chaired the committee in a non-voting capacity.

Topics that frequently came up during the candidates’ interviews and interest meetings included bolstering fundraising efforts as state support of higher education dwindles, making GSU more competitive in attracting top talent, and the relationship between athletics and academics.