George E. Cooper named Executive Director of the White House Initiative for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

Incoming Executive Director of the White House Initiative for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Dr. George E. Cooper

The Obama Administration announced a new leadership team for the White House Initiative for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Former South Carolina State University president Dr. George E. Cooper will serve as Executive Director of the Initiative, while Dr. Ivory Toldson from Howard University and Senior Fellow with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), will serve as the Deputy Director of the same initiative.

As part of the leadership team for the White House Initiative on HBCUs, both Cooper and Toldson will work with the presidentially appointed HBCU Board of Advisors and assist U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan as a liaison between the executive branch and HBCUs across the country.

Cooper and Toldson will serve as the constant voice of the HBCU community at the Department of Education and help to shape policy and deploy resources to better serve the students, faculty and families of the greater HBCU community. They will also work with 32 federal agencies that support HBCUs through federal grants and contracts.

U.S. President Barack Obama has stated that by the end of this decade, he wants the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. The the White House Initiative for HBCUs is intended to help increase both the number of African American graduates and help sustain the livelihood of these institutions.

Read more: Ebony