SU System announces search committees for Law Center and Shreveport campus leaders

Two separate search committees comprised of a diverse group of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and stakeholders will screen applicants and select finalists for two SU System campus chancellors.

The Southern University Shreveport (SUSLA) and the SU Law Center (SULC) Search Committees will assist the SU System with selecting replacements for Ray L. Belton, the former SUSLA chancellor who was named SU System President-Chancellor in June, and for retired judge Freddie Pitcher Jr. who stepped down as SULC chancellor in June.

The Southern University Shreveport Chancellor Search Committee includes, from SUSLA:

Levi Brown, SGA president; Larry Ferdinand, executive director for corporate and business development and SU alumnus; S. Albert Gilliam, interim chancellor; Sonya D. Hester, associate professor of English and Faculty Senate president; Brandy Jacobsen interim vice chancellor, finance and administration; Janice Sneed, vice chancellor, Community and Workforce Development and Title III; and Tiffany Williams Varner, director, School of Nursing. Other members of the 13-member SUSLA committee include SU alumni:

Dottie Bell, a retired educator and former SU Board of Supervisors member; retired Caddo District Judge Leon Emanuel; attorney Wendell Piper, president, SUSLA Foundation Board of Directors; E. Jean Ware, a retired educator; and Frank Williams, executive director, SUSLA Foundation. The committee’s chairman is Willie C. White III, chief executive officer, David Raines Community Health Centers. Bell and Gilliam will serve as co-chairs.

The 14-member SU Law Center Chancellor Search Committee will be chaired by SULC alumnus Dwayne Murray, partner, Murray and Murray Law Firm, and vice-chaired by SULC alumna Erin Monroe Wesley, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Baton Rouge Area Chamber. SULC faculty, student, and staff representatives are Alfreda Diamond, interim vice chancellor for institutional accountability and evening division; Angela Scott-Gaines, computer support specialist; Patrick Harrington, president, Student Bar Association and student member, Louisiana Board of Regents; attorney Virginia Listach, director, Law Clinic; Andrea Love, director of recruitment; and attorney Winston Riddick, a retired SULC professor. SULC alumni representatives are:

Timothy Hardy, partner, Roedel, Parsons, Koch, Blache, Balhoff and McCollister Law Firm and member of the Louisiana Technical and Community College System Board of Supervisors; Louisiana State Representative Edward "Ted” James, president SU Law Center Alumni Association; attorney Patsy A. Randall, assistant district attorney, 15th Judicial District; Domoine Rutledge, general counsel, East Baton Rouge Parish School System, and president, SU System Foundation Board of Directors; attorney Willie James Singleton; and attorney Joseph K. "Joe” West, president and CEO, Minority Corporate Counsel Association.

"We will rely on the deliberations and experience of these select groups of knowledgeable individuals as we seek qualified and dynamic leaders for our nationally recognized community college campus and our Law Center," said Belton, who also is serving as an ex-officio member on both committees.

The SUSLA Chancellor Search Committee is scheduled to meet for the first time Thursday, October 1, 2015, in the Jesse Stone Science Lecture Hall, at noon. The SULC Chancellor Search Committee will hold its initial meeting Tuesday, October 6, 2015, in the Board of Supervisors’ Meeting Room, 2nd floor, J.S. Clark Administration Building, at 3 p.m.