BACKGROUND: Dr. Leroy Hamilton Jr., most recently served as the special assistant to the president at Norfolk State University, an HBCU in Norfolk, Virginia. An administrator with broad experience, Hamilton has held positions as interim provost and vice president for academic affairs and vice provost for academic effectiveness. Hamilton has also served as a professor, an academic dean, an executive director of an academic advising unit for a freshman-year experience initiative, and a director of a student-services unit.

Hamilton has extensive experience with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the accrediting body for Kentucky State. As the institutional liaison for SACSCOC, Hamilton led Norfolk State through its decennial review. Hamilton has served as a member on the SACSCOC Ad Hoc Committee on Substantive Change, worked as an SACSCOC peer-evaluator and has conducted student success workshops at SACSCOC annual meetings. In addition, Hamilton has participated in the implementation of a SACSCOC Quality Enhancement Plan.

In previous roles, Hamilton has served as a liaison to state higher education governing boards, including service as a college and/or university liaison to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC), the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV), and the Southern Regional Education Board.

Hamilton’s student success achievements include pioneering university-wide one-stop student success centers that consolidated enrollment, student services, and a first-year experience office to streamline processes that affect student retention and graduation rates. Hamilton also has had success working with faculty, establishing the Center for Teaching and Learning to encourage and support faculty research and to train faculty in best practices in classroom and remote instruction.