Dr. Artis was unanimously appointed by the Board of Trustees as the 14^th and first woman President of Benedict College on June 30, 2017. Previously, Dr. Artis served as the 13^th and first woman President of Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Intentional, professional, and thoroughly committed to the proliferation and transformation of colleges and universities that serve underrepresented men and women of color, Dr. Artis’ leadership has been recognized locally and nationally. In 2018, she was named “Female HBCU President of the Year” by HBCU Digest. In 2019, Dr. Artis was named to Diverse Issues in Higher Education’s “Top 35 Leading Women in Higher Education.” In 2020, Dr. Artis was named “President of the Year” by Higher Ed Dive for her leadership in navigating the unprecedented challenges of 2020.

Under Dr. Artis’ leadership, Benedict College was awarded the 2019 American Council on Education (ACE) Fidelity Investments Award for Institutional Transformation. The award recognizes institutions that have responded to higher education challenges in innovative and creative ways and achieved dramatic results in a short period of time. Benedict was also named 2019 HBCU of the Year by the HBCU Digest.

Dr. Artis is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where she earned a Doctorate in Higher Education Leadership and Policy. She also holds a Juris Doctorate from West Virginia University College of Law, and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political science from sister HBCU, West Virginia State University. The consummate professional, Dr. Artis also holds a Certificate of fundraising Management from Indiana University and a Certificate of Mastery in Prior Learning Assessment from DePaul University.

Dr. Artis is a Member of the Board of Directors for the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools – Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC). She is the Chair of the Presidents’ Advisory Board for Title III Administrators; a member of the President’s Council for the NCAA (Division II); and is a member of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Presidents’ Advisory Council. She also serves as an Advisory Board Member for the University of South Carolina’s National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition and is a Board Member for the Forum on Education Abroad. She is Vice-Chair for the “Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) HBCU/MSI Collaboration,” and has been named an “Equity in Energy Ambassador” for the United States Department of Energy. She previously served on the Education Advisory Committee to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, during the Obama Administration.

Most recently, in 2021, President Artis was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). NACIQI advises the U.S. Secretary of Education on matters concerning accreditation, the Secretary’s recognition process for accrediting agencies, and institutional eligibility for federal student aid, through the Committee’s public meetings.

A prolific speaker, critical thinker and fierce advocate for educational access, Dr. Artis is frequently engaged as a mentor, lecturer, and catalyst for strategic transformation. She is a widely respected innovator and thought leader on issues of higher education, specifically as it relates to underserved and vulnerable populations, having published countless articles and editorials on topics related to higher education equity and inclusion as well as the complexities associated with leading minority serving institutions. Artis is the founding Co-Chair for the Historically Black College and University Annual Sustainability Summit, which is in its 4^th year. She has received more than 300 awards and recognitions locally and nationally for her work.

Dr. Shouping Hu is the Louis W. and Elizabeth N. Bender Endowed Professor of Higher Education and the founding director of the Center for Postsecondary Success (CPS) at Florida State University.

Dr. Hu’s research interests examine issues related to postsecondary readiness, outcomes, and success. Dr. Hu has published more than 70 journal articles and book chapters and is the author of five books. He has secured, in total, about eight million dollars in funding support from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Regional Educational Laboratory-Southeast (REL-SE), NPEC/AIR, and other sources.

Dr. Hu teaches and has taught graduate-level courses in Higher Education Finance, International Perspectives in Higher Education, Research on College Students, Student Success in College, Public Policy in Higher Education, Prospectus Development, State Education Policy, and American College Students, among others.

Dr. Hu has served as an editorial/advisory board member of Journal of Higher Education, Educational Researcher, Research in Higher Education, Review of Educational Research, and Journal of College Student Development. He is currently serving as the associate editor for the policy section of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. In addition, he has served as a standing member for the Systems and Broad Reform panel and the National Research and Development (R&D) Center panel for IES, as well as a panel member for the National Science Foundation (NSF).

He received a B.S. degree in Geography in 1992 from Peking University. He earned his M.S. in Economics (1998) and his Ph.D. in Higher Education (2000) from Indiana University Bloomington.

In October 2021, John Silvanus Wilson, Jr. became the executive director of the Millennium Leadership Initiative, an established leadership development program under the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. From August 2017 to October 2021, he served at Harvard University, first as a President in Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, then as the Senior Advisor and Strategist to the Harvard President, where he guided the University’s launch of a new effort at equity, inclusion, and belonging. His final year there was spent as a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Business School, where he completed a book on the future of higher education, with emphasis on historically Black colleges and universities (now slated for publication in spring 2023).

In the nine years prior to arriving at Harvard, he served in the first term under President Barack Obama as the executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He then served with distinction as the 11th President of Morehouse College, his Alma Mater. Between 2001 and 2009, he was as an Associate Professor and an Executive Dean at the George Washington University. In 1985, he began his career with a 16-year stay at MIT, mostly as a senior fundraising official in two major capital campaigns. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College, a Master of Theology from Harvard University, and both Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Administration, Planning and Social Policy, also from Harvard University. Wilson has won numerous awards and has served on several trustee boards, including Harvard University and Spelman College.

He is married to Dr. Carol Espy-Wilson, an engineering professor and entrepreneur at the University of Maryland, College Park. They are the proud parents of three adult children -- twin daughters and a son.

Naomi Norman is the interim Director of the Division of Academic Enhancement (DAE) and Associate Vice President for Instruction. Since Norman’s arrival at UGA, she has made a significant impact on instruction and has a long record of departmental, university and professional service. Norman is a veteran administrator in the department of the classics and has directed University of Georgia Excavations at Carthage (Tunisia) project since 1992 and is director of the UGA Reacting to the Past Program, an award-winning pedagogy that transcends traditional disciplinary divisions and gives students an opportunity to engage in active learning.

Dr. Norman, a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, has also served on a number of M.A. and Ph.D. advisory, examining, and reading committees in Classics, Comparative Literature, Art History, and Geology at Georgia and at other institutions.

Education

Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology — University of Michigan

A.B. in Greek and Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology — Bryn Mawr College

(Magna cum laude, Honors in Archaeology)