BATON ROUGE — A University of Louisiana System presidential search committee narrowed a list of 11 potential candidates for the role of a new permanent leader at Grambling State University down to six during a three-hour executive session Monday inside the Claiborne Building.
GSU’s permanent presidency position after Rick Gallot took over as president of the ULS as of Jan. 1. Grambling State Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Connie Walton is currently serving as interim president at GSU.
The finalists for the position of new president at GSU will next take place in a two day series of interviews set for Feb. 3 and 4 on the GSU campus.
Those five finalists are Gregory Ford, Edwin Smith, Martin Lemelle, Roderick Smothers, Monica Williams and Markey Pierre.
“As with previous practices, we will conduct those interviews over a two-day period,” Gallot said. “Interviewing candidates on campus gives all stakeholders an opportunity to engage with the candidates and it gives the candidates an opportunity to get a feel for the campus.
A Grambling native, Ford currently serves as a tenured Associate Professor of Biology at Southern University-New Orleans, where he served as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs from 2021-23.
Ford, who has also served on the faculty of Fort Valley State University, Georgia Highlands College and Morehouse College, is also the Co-Founder/President of Brain-Gen Biotech, LLC, a company that is working to develop Neuregulin-1 (NRG-1) as a therapeutic for stroke and other acute brain injuries associated with a secondary injury mediated through inflammation.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology with a minor in chemistry from Grambling State University and a doctorate in biomedical sciences from Meharry Medical College. Ford also completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the American Psychological Association Neuroscience Program at Morehouse School of Medicine.
Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and Management from Grambling State and completed his MBA studies at the University of Dallas, Gupta School of Management, and also earned a Juris Doctorate at the Texas A&M University School of Law.
Currently serving as Senior Director of Alliances and Channels for the London Stock Exchange Group, Smith believes his years of leading high-performance organizations will be beneficial in continuing the established excellence in education at GSU.
Lemelle, another Grambling native and third generation GSU alumnus, currently serves as Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer at the Maryland Institute College of Art where he is responsible for operating a $91 million budget and a $120 million endowment supporting more than 291 faculty designers and artists.
Prior to that role Lemelle served former GSU President Rick Gallot’s Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer from 2016-21.
Smothers served as president of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, from 2015 until May of last year.
He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Educational Leadership, Research, and Counseling Concentration in Higher Education Administration from LSU in 2004, a Master’s of Public Administration with a Concentration in Higher Education Administration from LSU in 1997 and a Bachelor’s of Psychology degree from LSU in 1995.
Williams currently the Vice President for University Advancement at the University of Texas-Dallas, where she also serves as President President and CEO of the UNT Dallas Foundation, Smith says her commitment to advancing institutional advancement follows a path of implementing strategies that build structures to ensure paramount student experiences and alumni success are factors that makes her a strong candidate for the presidency role at GSU.
She earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Prairie View A & M University, a M.A, in Communications from Texas Southern University and a B.A. in English/Journalism from Texas Southern University.
Currently serving as Vice Chancellor for External Affairs and Chief of Staff at LSU-Shreveport since 2016, Pierre previously served as President/General Manager of Southern Strategy Groups of North Louisiana from 2006-2020 and as Vice President/CEO of Wimberly Construction Company from 2004-09.
Pierre holds a doctorate in Business Administration from Walden University, an MBA from Nova Southeastern University, a bachelor’s degree in Business Finance from Louisiana Tech University and also did post-graduate studies in Organizational and Industrial Psychology at Louisiana Tech.
