Governor picks Tony Clayton to chair Southern University board

By Greg LaRose
Contributing Writer

(lailluminator.com) — Gov. Jeff Landry has chosen career prosecutor Tony Clayton as chairman of the Southern University System Board of Supervisors, a role he’s previously held on the panel.

Clayton, who will become chair effective Jan. 1, is the district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, which encompasses Iberville, West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee parishes. He’s held the elected position since 2020, before which he worked with the office as first assistant and chief of felony trials.

Prior to that, he worked in the East Baton Rouge Parish district attorney’s office and was a Louisiana Supreme Court-appointed judge for the 19th Judicial District. Clayton is also founding partner in a Port Allen law firm.

The governor counts Clayton among his allies in his push for stricter criminal justice measures, with Clayton appearing several times before legislative panels in support of Landry’s proposals.

“I have known Tony for a long time and there is no one better suited for this position,” the governor said in a statement. “As a graduate of Southern University, he knows exactly what it takes to bring the University’s education to a higher standard and properly train students for the workforce. I look forward to his great work.”

“Governor Landry is serious about education, and bringing education to a higher standard in Louisiana. I stand ready to implement this agenda and grow Southern University’s education and workforce standards,” Clayton said in the same statement.

Clayton graduated from Southern University in 1988 and from its law school in 1991. He will lead the 16-member board that oversees the main campus in Baton Rouge and satellite schools in New Orleans and Shreveport.

Clayton replaces current chair Myron Lawson, a Baton Rouge insurance broker who has sat on the Southern University System board since 1998.

Clayton’s appointment is the latest for Landry under a law approved earlier this year that gives him discretion to choose state commission and higher education board leaders on his own.

This article originally published in the December 9, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.