Dear Panther Family,
What a week it’s been! We began by hosting several incredible events across our campuses starting with a President’s Day of Service at our Clarkston Campus and culminated with the Investiture Ceremony at our newly opened Convocation Center. We had a ribbon-cutting for that incredible new facility this week, too!
I am so honored and humbled to be Georgia State’s eighth president, and I am grateful to my family and to all who attended events surrounding my investiture. It was such an honor to hear remarks from civil rights icon Andrew Young, Chancellor Sonny Perdue and my great friend Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens during the Investiture Ceremony.
The events this week highlighted our four strategic pillars — research and innovation, student success, college to careers and identity and placemaking — and held to the overarching theme of “Our Place, Our Time.”
It is, indeed, our place and our time.
Our strength is that students from all backgrounds achieve, and then leverage that rich experience to create truly unique innovations. We’re ranked among the top research universities and have been distinguished by the tremendous expansion of our innovative research enterprise.
From across disciplines and through collaboration, we are helping solve the complex challenges of the 21st century.
But there is more to do.
We need to show the world that the best solutions are inclusive. We must extend into groups who have not traditionally attended two-year or four-year institutions. They will need us, and we are uniquely positioned to help.
Ensuring that our students have a pathway to graduation and career success has been and will continue to be at the top of all our priority list.
Georgia State will continue to extend its hand locally and nationally to continue to set our students on the path to success.
Dr. Booker T. Washington, one of the first Black pioneers for leadership in education, said it best: “There are two ways of exerting one's strength — one is pushing down, the other is pulling up."
It’s clear that Georgia State is lifting up.
All the best,
