NSU Board of Visitors Announces the

Name of University’s New President

Norfolk, Va. — The Norfolk State University Board of Visitors, in a called special meeting held on February 2, has selected Dr. Carolyn Winstead Meyers, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at North Carolina A&T University, to be NSU’s next president.

Meyers, a native of Newport News, Va., participated in campus forums with diverse constituencies last Friday. She was one of two finalists chosen by the Presidential Search Committee to interview on campus. Meyers succeeds Dr. Marie V. McDemmond, who served as NSU’s president for eight years before resigning last March for health reasons. Dr. Alvin J. Schexnider, NSU interim president will continue to serve in this capacity until Meyers assumes her duties as president.

A tenured professor in the College of Engineering at A&T, Meyers holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Howard University; a master’s in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Georgia Tech. She has done post doctoral work at Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management. Her career in higher education spans more than 30 years and includes both academic and administrative experiences. While Meyers was serving as an associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, she received her first administrative appointment as the Director of the Center for Success of the Southeastern Universities and Colleges Coalition in Engineering Education (SUCCEED), an engineering education coalition of eight universities in the southeastern United States funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Meyers currently serves as chair of the board of directors of the National Institute of Aerospace, which is based in Hampton, Va. and holds numerous professional memberships on several boards including the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, the Advisory Board for the Journal of Engineering Education and the Board of Trustees of the Moses Cone Health Systems.

She also served as the first associate dean of research for the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech and was later appointed professor and dean of the College of Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University.

Prior to her current position, Meyers served as a program officer in two divisions of the NSF - the Division of Undergraduate Education and the Division of Human Resource Development. Among her many awards and honors include the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, Society of Automotive Engineers Ralph A. Teetor Award and the National Society of Black Engineers’ Golden Torch Award. Meyers has also been inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni at Georgia Tech.

“Both finalists for the position of president at NSU were highly qualified. After two days of discussion, review of comments from alumni, faculty, staff, and students, the presidential search committee strongly felt that Dr. Meyers’ background in science and technology was the right fit to position Norfolk State as a major player in the areas of scientific research,” said Jack Ezzell, NSU’s rector. “Her extensive academic career, ties to the Hampton Roads region, and her deep appreciation of a strong liberal arts program, and HBCU tradition put her over the top.”