Gwendolyn Boyd named new President of Alabama State University

Gwendolyn Boyd (pictured), has been named as the first female president of Alabama State University. Boyd assumes the role on February 1.

“I feel good about our choice,” Alabama State University Board Chairman Elton Dean said in a statement. “I am looking for great things from Dr. Boyd. The Board is going to work with her 100 percent. We are going to be the policymakers, and she will be the CEO. I believe everyone is going to be pleased with the direction that the university is going.”

Boyd is an alumnus of the Alabama State University, having earned her Bachelors degree in Mathematics in 1977. She then proceeded to the Yale University’s School of Engineering in New Haven, Connecticut, where she earned a Masters degree in mechanical engineering in 1979. She then went on to earn a Ph.D in Divinity from Howard University.

Gwendolyn Boyd takes over the helm of the university at a time the institution undergoes an ongoing audit, commissioned in December 2012 by Alabama Govenor Robert Bentley.

The Alabama State University, is the oldest institution for higher learning founded for African Americans.