Lemoyne-Owen College Board of Trustees Elects the College’s First Female President (10172 hits)
LeMoyne-Owen College Board of Trustees Chair Robert Lipscomb proudly announced Memphis, Tennessee native and 1976 LOC graduate Dr. Andrea Lewis Miller as the college’s 12th president after an exhaustive national search. “Today marks a new era in LeMoyne-Owen College’s 153-year history,” Lipscomb said to a crowd of community leaders and LOC faculty, alumni, staff, supporters and officials at a press conference earlier today. “Dr. Miller’s qualifications match those we were seeking in the next president, and we are excited to have her join the LOC leadership team.”
Miller graduated from LeMoyne-Owen with a bachelor’s degree in biology. “I am honored and humbled by this opportunity to serve an institution that has done so much for me,” she said. “I look forward to embracing my alma mater’s shining legacy and helping the institution evolve in today’s higher education marketplace. I want LeMoyne-Owen College to continue to be for others what it was for me: a precious opportunity to learn, grow and eventually find purpose.”
Lipscomb and fellow board of trustees members also were impressed with Dr. Miller’s abilities to garner support from the community. “She is a talented fundraiser who has inspired individuals, organizations, foundations and corporations to donate millions of dollars to her respective institutions,” Lipscomb said. “We are confident that her ability to nurture and forge fruitful alliances and relationships will prove to be beneficial for LeMoyne-Owen as well.”
Dr. Miller has served as chancellor for Baton Rouge Community College in Louisiana since 2012. She also served as chancellor at Sowela Technical Community College in Lake Charles, Louisiana between 2007 and 2012. In addition to her experience as a chief executive officer in higher education, Dr. Miller has served in leadership roles at Southwest Community College in Memphis and LeMoyne-Owen College where she started out as a biology professor and rose through the ranks to the position of vice-president of academic affairs.
Dr. Miller holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Cell and Developmental Biology from Atlanta University. She is scheduled to assume the presidency Sept. 1. Current president Johnnie B. Watson officially retires June 30, but will serve until her arrival.
ABOUT LEMOYNE-OWEN COLLEGE LeMoyne-Owen College provides a transformative experience educating students for urban-focused leadership, scholarship, service and professional careers. The American Missionary Association founded the College in 1862 to educate freedmen and runaway slaves at the Union Army’s Camp Shiloh in Shiloh, Tennessee. Today, the LeMoyne-Owen has a student body of more than 1,000 students and offers 4-year degrees in five disciplines: Business and Economic Development; Education; Fine Arts and Humanities; Natural and Mathematical Sciences; and, Social and Behavioral and Sciences.
LeMoyne-Owen College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award the baccalaureate degree. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of LeMoyne-Owen College.
