CHARLOTTE, N.C. / April 2, 2020 - After an extensive national search, Johnson C. Smith University announces the appointment of Dr. Karen D. Morgan as senior vice president for Academic Affairs (SVPAA). As SVPAA, she will serve as the chief academic officer and is responsible for all academic programs and personnel. Morgan currently serves as the interim assistant provost for Undergraduate Experience, interim director of the Lee Hagan Africana Studies Center, and associate professor of Mathematics at New Jersey City University (NJCU). She will begin her tenure at Johnson C. Smith University on July 1, 2020.
With over 25 years of experience in higher education, Morgan has achieved recognition for her leadership efforts in enhancing student success, implementing innovative pedagogical approaches to teaching, stimulating students intellectually, promoting research in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and providing outstanding service to students.
JCSU President Clarence D. Armbrister said Morgan’s commitment to excellence in every aspect of the academy makes her the ideal administrator to lead academics at JCSU. “Dr. Morgan is an accomplished leader in higher education, and I am delighted to welcome her as our new senior vice president,” Armbrister said. “Her passion for STEM disciplines, social sciences, the liberal arts and business will take us to the next level of providing a relevant, well-rounded education and producing marketable graduates, who demonstrate excellence in their fields. I am confident Dr. Morgan’s leadership will place JCSU at the forefront of innovation in teaching, learning and research.”
Through her lens as an academic executive, mathematician, educator and poet, Morgan has presented and published on various leadership and academic topics, including the connection between quantitative literacy and creative literacy.
Morgan has received numerous honors and awards throughout her career, including her selections as a Network of Mathematical Sciences Mathematically Gifted & Black Honoree, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education Scholar at Harvard University, a National Academies Education Fellow in the Sciences, and an American Campus Communities Champion of Student Success.
Morgan is a member of the 2018-2019 cohort of the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows Program, the nation’s premier higher education leadership development program. She completed her ACE Fellowship at UNC Charlotte, where she was mentored by Chancellor Philip L. DuBois. She currently serves a member of the ACE Council of Fellows (COF) Board and is the Chair of the COF Finance and Development Committee and an ACE ENGAGE Founding Advisor.
Morgan is a member of the New Jersey State Higher Education Plan Student Success Working Group and was president-elect and treasurer of the New Jersey Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators.
Morgan has been a member of the NJCU faculty since 2005 and teaches mathematics to both undergraduate and graduate students. Her philosophical perspective of teaching centers on one ideological focus—to marry mathematics, psychology, philosophy, sociology, and pedagogy to create alternate means of assessment that are effective and produce measurable learning outcomes.
Morgan earned her bachelor of arts degree in mathematics, master of science degree in mathematics and Ph.D. in higher education/mathematics education from the University of Mississippi.
