SUNO dean to serve as interim chancellor

Southern University at New Orleans, the city’s sole historically Black public institution of higher learning, announced last week that it has selected one of its own to fill the post that will become open when Chancellor Dr. Victor Ukpolo steps down next month.

The Southern University System Board of Supervisors on May 13 approved the selection of SUNO alum and College of Arts and Sciences Dean Dr. Lisa Mims-Devezin to serve as interim chancellor, a SUNO spokeswoman said last week.

At the same Board of Supervisors meeting in Baton Rouge, board members authorized search for a permanent replacement for Dr. Ukpolo. SUS President-Chancellor Ray Belton will appoint a chancellor search committee, although no timeline was provided for flailing that task.

Dr. Mims-Devezin taught biology at Dillard University before accepting a faculty position at SUNO in 1993. Since coming to SUNO, she was honored with the Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Faculty award in 2009 and is credited with developing the institution’s health information management systems program, SUNO spokeswoman Tammy Barnes said.

Before earning a master’s degree and doctorate from Southern University at Baton Rouge, Mims-Devezin earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern University at New Orleans.

“I am a proud daughter of Southern University at New Orleans,” Mims-Devezin said in a statement last week. “I am committed to upholding this university as an exceptional institution of higher learning, not only locally and nationally, bt also on a global scale.”

This article originally published in the May 23, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.