Clark Atlanta University names Dr. Charlene D. Gilbert as Provost and Senior Vice President Academic Affairs, effective June 1, 2023

04/12/2023

Clark Atlanta University is pleased to announce that Dr. Charlene D. Gilbert will join the University on June 1, 2023 as Provost and Senior Vice President, Academic Affairs, reporting directly to Dr. George T. French, Jr., President.

Dr. Gilbert currently serves as the Senior Vice Provost for Student Academic Excellence at Ohio State University.  Her current portfolio includes the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Graduate School, Academic Programs, and the Office of Strategic Enrollment Management.  Prior to this position Dr. Gilbert served for five years as the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Toledo where she had direct supervisory responsibility for 14 academic departments and programs across multiple disciplines including all of the arts, humanities and most of the social sciences at the University.  In this role she managed a budget of $26.0 million with over 200 faculty serving 1500 students.  She also served three years as the dean of one of Ohio State’s four regional campuses located in Lima, Ohio.  The programs at the Lima campus included the traditional liberal arts as well as several professional programs such as business and social work.

As an administrative leader, Dr. Gilbert has impressive accomplishments in the areas of curriculum development, student success, and faculty development. In her current role as Senior Vice Provost at Ohio State, she has led crosscutting strategy to provide access to transformational student academic experiences. She has built partnerships and infrastructure around several goals, including improving student completion, enhancing pipeline and transfer programs, increasing opportunities in STEM education, and augmenting student support systems.

Under her leadership as dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Toledo, the college developed a major in Data Analytics, a graduate certificate in Disability Studies, reactivated their master’s in public administration degree program and was able to offer its first entirely online degree. She has similarly impressive accomplishments in the areas of student academic success.

As a dean at both Ohio State and the University of Toledo, she led successful initiatives aimed at increasing retention rates, graduation rates and student engagement. During both of her terms as dean, she was able to achieve record highs in first-year retention and graduation rates. In addition, she has a strong track record supporting faculty development and research excellence.  During her tenure at the University of Toledo, her college saw increases in external research funding, the Psychology department moved up five spots in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, the History Doctoral program was ranked by U.S. News and World Report for the first time in a decade, and the Theatre and Film department earned national accreditation.

Dr. Gilbert earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from Yale University, a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Temple University, and a Ph.D. in Educational Studies from the University of Nebraska. She is an accomplished administrator, scholar, and artist whose film credits include the award-winning PBS documentary Homecoming:  Sometimes I am haunted by memories of red dirt and clay.