Morehouse College board members have chosen the former dean of Georgetown University’s business school to lead the Atlanta-based, historically black college for men.
The board voted late Sunday to name David A. Thomas the college’s 12th president.
Interim president Harold Martin Jr., a former Morehouse board member, will lead the college through the end of the year. Thomas, 61, takes office on Jan. 1, 2018.
Thomas said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution his goals include increasing enrollment from its current 2,200 students to 2,500 students, providing more scholarships, finding opportunities for every student to study abroad, supporting faculty research and engaging in issues that improve outcomes for African-American men, noting Morehouse “is a place where we can offer solutions to those issues.”
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Thomas led Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business from 2011 to 2016. The school exceeded a $100 million fundraising goal by $30 million during his tenure, according to published reports. It also increased the percentage of women and minority students under Thomas, news accounts say. Thomas is the first non-Morehouse graduate to lead the college since Benjamin E. Mays, who was its president from 1940 to 1967.
Thomas comes to Morehouse after a tumultuous period that began with the dismissal of president John S. Wilson in April, two months before his contract expired. Wilson butted heads with some board members. William Taggart, named Morehouse's interim president in April, died in June.
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