Black Woman Named Chancellor of the University of Kansas

Bernadette Gray-Little was named the 17th chancellor of the University of Kansas. She is the first woman and the first African American to be named to the position.

Since 2006 Dr. Gray-Little has served as executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously she was dean of Chapel Hill’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Gray-Little is a graduate of Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Saint Louis University.

Dr. Gray-Little will begin her duties as chancellor of the University of Kansas on August 15.

The flagship campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence has about 21,000 undergraduate students. Four percent are black.

Copyright © 2009. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.