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Release date: March 4, 2004 Earl Lewis Selected as Emory University Provost
One of four finalists identified over a six-month search, Lewis emerged as the top candidate following campus visits by all the finalists earlier this year. Wagner said he will submit his recommendation to the board that Lewis be confirmed as Emory's first permanent provost since the departure of Rebecca Chopp in June 2001. If confirmed, Lewis' appointment will begin July 1. "Earl Lewis' experience in academic administration, his roots in the humanities and his particular experience in graduate education will be strong complements to those already part of Emory's leadership team," said Wagner. "His visionary outlook on the future of higher education will enable him to jump in immediately to help lead our strategic planning process and to set priorities for Emory's future advancement." "I am just thrilled," Lewis said from Ann Arbor, Mich. "I'm thrilled about the opportunity and excited to get down to Atlanta and begin determining what are the biggest priorities facing Emory." Lewis, who also is Elsa Barkley Brown and Robin D.G. Kelley Collegiate Professor of History and African American and African Studies at Michigan, becomes Emory's first African American provost and the highest ranking African American administrator in university history. He earned his bachelor's degree in history and psychology magna cum laude from Concordia College (Moorhead, Minn.) in 1978. Lewis earned master's and Ph.D. degrees in history from the University of Minnesota in 1981 and 1984, respectively. "Earl Lewis is a seasoned scholar and academic administrator, experienced at a highly energized intellectual institution," said Mike Mandl, executive vice president for finance and administration and a member of the provost search committee. "The comprehensiveness with which he thinks about the issues facing higher education and institutions like Emory set him apart from the other candidates. His particular strengths in the graduate realm at one of the top graduate schools in the country was also distinctive." Lewis has served as dean of the Rackham School since 1997 and became vice provost in 1998. He joined the Michigan faculty in 1989 and the next year became director of the school's Center for Afroamerican and African Studies. Lewis also spent four years as assistant professor of Afroamerican studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2000 Lewis co-edited "To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans" (Oxford University Press), and he is the author of "In Their Own Interests: Race, Class and Power in Twentieth-Century Norfolk" (University of California Press, 1993). Lewis has written more than three dozen essays, articles and reviews, and he co-edited the 11-volume "The Young Oxford History of African Americans." In 2002 Lewis chaired the board of directors for the Council of Graduate Schools, and he has been a member of several editorial boards. His research projects have been funded by the Rockefeller, Ford, Mellon and National Science foundations, among others, and in 1999 he received Michigan's Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award. ### Note to editors: Photo available on request from dhammac@emory.edu or 404-727-0644 Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For more than a decade Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, a comprehensive metropolitan health care system. |
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