GSU president applicants revealed
Applications are in for the open president seat at Grambling State University, and semifinalists will be chosen at a meeting Monday in Baton Rouge.
The University of Louisiana System released the CVs and letters of interest for the 11 candidates seeking the GSU job Thursday morning.
The UL System board’s search committee will hold its second meeting at 11 a.m. Monday to review the applications and select semifinalists. The semifinalists will then make appearances on GSU campus in early February before interviewing with the committee and being trimmed down to finalists, according to the current timeline.
The full UL System board will select the next GSU president from among those finalists.
Applicants are: Ande Durojaiye, Sonja Feist-Price, Gregory Ford, Jonathan Jefferson, Martin Lemelle, Marc Newman, Markey Pierre, Willie Rockward, Edwin Smith, Roderick Smothers and Monica Williams.
They’re each seeking to succeed Richard “ Rick” Gallot, Jr. as the 11th president of Lincoln Parish’s own HBCU ( Historically Black College and University) after Gallot was elevated to the presidency of the UL System at the start of the year.
Voting members of the search committee are almost all UL System board members, except for Gary Poe, representing the faculty of GSU. That’s customary procedure for presidential search committees across the system.
The GSU search committee also includes many non- voting advisory members from the university and surrounding community.
The applicant list includes two former GSU administrators and five GSU graduates. All 11 candidates have some experience as either an employee or a student of an HBCU.
Martin Lemelle and Marc Newman are each hoping to return to lead GSU after serving as administrators there until 2021.
Lemelle is currently the executive vice president and CFO of Maryland Institute College of Art. He was an executive vice president and COO at Grambling State from 2016 to 2021. He also holds a bachelor’s degree from GSU.
Lemelle ran for Congress in Louisiana’s 5th congressional district in 2020, a race won by the late Luke Letlow.
Newman is currently vice president for institutional advancement at Albion College. He holds a doctorate in developmental education from GSU and served as vice president for advancement, research and economic development there from 2016 to 2021.
Newman’s other HBCU experience includes a former vice president position at St. Augustine’s University.
Durojaiye is the vice president of regional campuses and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Applied Sciences at Miami University (of Ohio).
He holds a doctorate of education from Vanderbilt University and got his bachelor’s at Tennesee State, an HBCU.
Feist-Price was most recently provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Michigan-Flint, a post she resigned at the end of 2023.
She holds a doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Kentucky and a master’s degree from Southern University, a well- known Louisiana HBCU.
Ford is a tenured associate professor and former vice chancellor at Southern University at New Orleans. He completed a post- doctoral fellowship at Morehouse School of Medicine.
His HBCU experience includes positions at Southern, Morehouse College, and Fort Valley State, as well as education at Morehouse, Meharry Medical College and a bachelor’s degree from GSU.
Ford is also the brother of Gordan Ford, the executive director of Lincoln Preparatory School in Grambling, a charter school that was affiliated with GSU until 2016.
Jefferson is a special advisor to the president at Lesley University. He holds a doctor of management degree from Colorado Technical University.
As far as HBCU experience, he’s been a dean at Albany State and Clark Atlanta University and holds a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College.
Pierre is vice chancellor of external affairs and chief of staff at LSU Health Shreveport. She holds a doctor of business administration degree from Walden University, as well as two lower degrees from Louisiana Tech University.
When it comes to HBCU experience, Pierre has been an adjunct professor at Southern University in Shreveport.
Rockward is chair of the physics department at Morgan State Univeristy, an HBCU. He holds a doctorate in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He went to GSU for his bachelor’s.
In addition to Morgan State and GSU, Rockward’s HBCU experience also extends to a previous position at Morehouse College.
While most applicants come from higher education, Smith is the senior director of alliances and channels at the London Stock Exchange Group.
Smith holds a juris doctorate from Texas A& M University and went to GSU for his undergraduate degree.
Smothers is the executive director of the Center for the Study and Preservation of HBCUs at Virginia Union University, which is itself an HBCU.
He holds a doctorate in education leadership from LSU.
Finally, Williams is foundation president/ CEO and vice president of advancement at University of North Texas at Dallas. She has degrees and past positions at HBCUs Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern.
