Dr. Lawrence Potter Jr. appointed executive director of institutional diversity
From Dr. Gene Scapanski
Vice president for mission
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Lawrence T. Potter Jr. has been hired as executive director of institutional diversity. He will begin his position Monday, Aug. 22.
Potter comes to us from Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo, Mich., where he was director and associate professor, Africana Studies and English, in the College of Arts and Sciences. Concurrently, he also served as coordinator of the Multicultural Student Achievement Programs at WMU.
He received his Ph.D. in English (with distinction) from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he also received his M.A. in English (with highest honors). He was a post-doctoral fellow at Purdue University in Indiana, and he had a one-year appointment as Minority Faculty Fellow/Provost Administrative Intern at Alma College in Alma, Mich.
Dr. Lawrence Potter Jr.
He is the author of two books (pending publication) and numerous articles and conference presentations. His book, Insider/Outsider or Enigma? Reclaiming Harlem’s Forgotten Genius, is scheduled to be published by University Press of Florida in January 2006.
Among Potter’s many accomplishments at Western Michigan, he served on the Steering Committee of the Presidential Initiative on Diversity and Multiculturalism and chaired the subcommittee which developed a comprehensive diversity and multiculturalism plan for the six Western Michigan University campuses.
Of the 30 majors who graduated in spring 2004 from the Africana Studies Department, which he chairs, 28 of them are now in graduate or professional degree programs at top-tier private and public research universities.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Lawrence Potter to the university and to this important position!
I also wish express my deep gratitude to the search committee members who sifted through more than 50 applications received from across the country, completed extensive phone interviews, and then brought three candidates to campus for final interviews. They have completed their work well and have done the university a great service.
Search Committee members: Edna Comedy, chair; Sharon Howell, CSJ; Ernest Owens; Patricia Reinhardt; Robert Riley and Nancy Zingale.
