A Champion of Increasing Black Higher Educational Opportunities in Georgia Has Announced Her Retirement

Last month Dorothy L. Lord retired after serving 17 years as president of Coastal Georgia Community College in Brunswick. When Lord came to the predominantly white college in 1991 she was determined to increase the racial diversity of the campus. In 1993 she instituted the Minority Outreach Program which had the goal of increasing black male enrollments at the college. The program identifies at-risk seventh-grade black males in area schools who have academic or disciplinary problems. Students chosen for the intervention program are tutored and given training on how to reform their bad habits. Hundreds of young black males have gone through the program and have turned their lives around.

One byproduct of the program is that there are many more students who become eligible for enrollment in college once they complete high school. Black enrollments at Coastal Georgia Community College have surged. African Americans now make up 26 percent of the 3,000-member student body.

Brunswick mayor Bryan Thompson praised Lord for her work by saying, “Her outreach initiatives have changed the community as a whole. She has made going to college a real option for people who never would have considered it before.”

For her efforts, Dr. Lord was presented with the 2007 Leadership Award by the board of regents of the University System of Georgia.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.