Dr. Dorothy Cowser Yancy
University President

Dr. Dorothy Cowser Yancy, a native of Alabama, is the twelfth president of Johnson C. Smith University and the first female to be elected to this prestigious post. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and social science from Johnson C. Smith University, a Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Ph.D. in political science from Atlanta University (Georgia), with further study at the University of Singapore, Hampton University, Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago), Northwestern University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. She earned certificates in management development from Harvard University and she is listed as an arbitrator with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services and the American Arbitration Association. She also is a Special Magistrate with the Florida Public Employee Relations Commission.

As president of Johnson C. Smith University from October 1994 to the present, Dr. Yancy has marshaled in phenomenal growth and progress. During this period, she completed two significant capital campaigns. The first campaign, ‘Campaign for the 90’s,' took place from 1993-1998 with a goal of $50 million. At the close of the campaign she exceeded this goal, raising $63.8 million. The second campaign, ‘Pathways to Success,’ was launched in October 2000 with a goal of raising $75 million. At the close of the campaign in June of 2007, she exceeded the goal again, raising $81.5 million. For these achievements, she has been heralded as one of the best fundraisers nationally. Since 1994, she has raised more than $145 million for the university. Additionally during her tenure, the University endowment more than tripled from $14 million to $53 million.

In 2000, Johnson C. Smith University became the first HBCU “Laptop” university, issuing IBM Thinkpads to all of its students. Prior to this historic feat, she led the University during a three-year period of strategic planning in technology and faculty/staff development, resulting in an integrated approach to a liberal arts higher education. This, too, was nationally recognized by her testifying before Congress in 2000 about the status of technology in higher education. As a result of her leadership, the University was ranked in 2001 by Yahoo Internet Life Magazine as one of the Top 50 most wired small colleges in the nation. In 2007 JCSU was ranked in the top ten of HBCUs by U.S. News and World Report.

Consequently, Dr. Yancy now has a highly qualified faculty (76% terminal degrees; 72% doctorates) and the applications to the University have increased by 400%. The amount that the University receives via grantsmanship has tripled, resulting in her awarding incentives to faculty for producing funded proposals. Concurrent with her leadership in the dynamic movement of educational reform are the renovation and construction of state-of-the-art facilities. Under her watch, a new technology center, a library, and a track/stadium/academic complex were constructed. Most notably, historic Biddle Hall, (1883), one of the oldest active administration buildings in the country, and currently listed on the Historic Register, was restored to its original splendor. She fostered the progress of infrastructure and structure in which programs have prospered. In 1996, the university was awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. JCSU is the only HBCU that has received the genius grant. In June 2007, the University accreditation was reaffirmed with the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities with no findings.

Dr. Yancy has earned the respect of the higher education community throughout her career. She served as a professor of history, technology and society and in the School of Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta) from 1972-1994. At Georgia Tech, she was the first African American to be promoted and tenured as a full professor. She also served as associate director of the School of Social Sciences. Previously she taught at several institutions including Albany State University, Hampton University, Evanston Township High School, and Barat College, where she was the director of the Afro-American Studies Program. Dr. Yancy was the first American to lecture at the Academy of Public Administration and Social Studies of the Small Hural in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, in 1991.

In scholarship, as well as leadership, Dr. Yancy has excelled. She has published over forty articles and labor arbitration cases in academic journals, including “Dorothy Bolden, Organizer of Domestic Workers; She was Born Poor and She Would Not Bow Down,” Sage, “Public Sector Bargaining in the South: A Case Study of Atlanta and Memphis,” Industrial Relations Association Proceedings, “William Edward Burghardt Dubois – Atlanta Years: The Human Side – A Study Based upon Oral Sources,” The Journal of Negro History, and several articles in Black Women in America: A Historical Encyclopedia.

In addition to her scholastic contributions, Dr. Yancy has contributed widely to civic and professional communities. She was the first African American to be appointed Special Master for the Florida Public Employee Relations Commission, was a member of labor delegations to the Soviet Union and Europe in 1988 and 1990, is the former president of the Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists and of the Atlanta Chapter of the Industrial Relations Research Association, and is a former member of the Executive Council of The Links, Inc. In 2001, she became the first female to be elected President of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA). Further, Dr. Yancy is a former president of the Members Presidents of UNCF (2004-2006), a former member of the board of the Council of Independent Colleges, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the Executive Council of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History. She is a former member of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Commission on Financing Higher Education, the American Council of Education Commission on Women in Higher Education, and the U.S. Air Force Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institution (HBCU/MI) Board of Advisors. She is also a former member of the North Carolina Post-Secondary Eligibility and served as the chairperson of the 2005 HBCU Congressional Forum Steering Committee. She was also a member of the Association of Governing Boards Task Force on the State of the Presidency in American Higher Education in 2006.

She served on the Board of the YMCA of Greater Charlotte, the Board of Directors of Bank of America of the Carolinas, the Board of Charlotte Urban League, the Board of Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, and the Board of Opera Carolina.

She presently is an advisor to the Mint Museum of Art, member of the Board of Levine Museum of the New South, the Chamber of Commerce Board of Advisors, a member of the Corporate Board of UNCF, a member of the Executive Committee of UNCF and President of the North Carolina Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. She is also a member of The National Association of HBCU Title III Administrators, Inc. Presidents Advisory Board.

As a valued member of various publics, Dr. Yancy has received numerous awards: Outstanding Teacher of the Year, Georgia Tech; Undergraduate Faculty Member of the Year, Georgia Tech Student Government; Outstanding Faculty Member by the Georgia Tech Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity; listing in Outstanding Young Women in America, Outstanding Professional in Human Service, Who’s Who in Black America, Who’s Who Among American Women, the World’s Who’s Who Among Women in Education and selected as “one of the Six Best Teachers in the U.S.” by Newsweek on Campus in 1988. Other honors include membership in ANAK (a Georgia Institute of Technology leadership organization), The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, Alpha Kappa Mu National Honor Society, Sigma Rho Sigma Honor Society, and Omicron Delta Kappa. She was inducted into the most prestigious honor society in the nation, the Delta of Georgia Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, in May 2002.

Since 1996, she has been widely recognized: Belle Ringer Image Award, Bennett College; National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame in Education; Black Issues in Higher Education, Twentieth Century Educator; Lifetime Achievement Award, North Carolina 4-H Club; W.E.B. DuBois Award, Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists; Maya Angelou Tribute to Achievement/UNCF; Torchbearer Award in Education; first woman to become the 10^th Benjamin E. Mayes Lecturer, Morehouse College; 2000 Person of Prominence, The Charlotte Post; and 2001 Outstanding Educator of the Year by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee. In the July 2002 issue of the national publication Savoy Magazine, she was listed as a “leader to watch.” In 2004, she received the Harold E. Delaney Exemplary Educational Leadership Award from the American Association for Higher Education. In 2005, Dr. was recognized by the Charlotte Business Journal as one of the Top Women in Business in the region and received the Old North State Award from the State of North Carolina. In January 2007, she received the Sisters Delany Honor Society Achievement Award, North Carolina Women of Distinction, and St. Augustine’s College. Also in 2007 she received the Horizon Award from Leadership Charlotte and the William J. Stanley Award from Georgia Institute of Technology. In 2008, she was inducted into the Women’s History Hall of Fame by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs and the Levine Museum of the South. She also testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor on “America’s Black Colleges and Universities: Models of Excellence and Challenges for the Future.”

She is energetic, dedicated, and highly effective as a promoter/guardian of excellence in higher education. Dr. Yancy is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation of Atlanta and has one daughter, Yvonne.