Dr. Chris Gilmer, President

It was a special moment to come home to Tougaloo College today where my academic career began. Historic Woodworth Chapel still stands as one of the cradles of the Civil Rights Movement on this Historically-Black college campus which was once a plantation where slaves toiled.

My friend and colleague, Dr. La’Tara Osborne-Lampkin, an educational researcher at Florida State University, invited me into her work forming a Research Alliance of HBCUs in Mississippi, aligned with our National Institutes for Historically-Underserved Students, and we are on a listening tour in advance of presenting this work in September at the White House Conference on HBCUs. Today we visited with two old friends, Professors Arna Shines (a former student) and Bruce O’Hara.

Tomorrow we visit several more HBCUs, one of which is a community college, a rarity in the HBCU network. Of course, I am spreading the good news about WVU Parkersburg everywhere I go to friends new and old and recruiting some new participants for the National Institutes.

I am topping off a very productive work day by having dinner with my one and only sister, so all in all a very fine day for me. I will be home to West Virginia with new ideas and new partners very soon.