Pamela E. Scott-Johnson, Ph.D., will serve as the new Provost/Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs this summer, following a national search of over 100 applicants.
Scott-Johnson currently serves as the Dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA), the largest college at the University. The school encompasses nearly 6,000 undergraduate students.
Prior to her time with Cal State LA, Scott-Johnson served as the Interim Dean of Morgan State University’s College of Liberal Arts, as the Chair of the Department of Psychology and taught as a Professor of Psychology.
She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University and a B.A. degree in psychology from Spelman College.
President Patrick F. Leahy Ed.D., announced Scott-Johnson’s selection during the weekly “Monmouth Mondays” podcast on Friday, Apr. 9.
“Her school, part of that larger University, serves as many students as we do here at Monmouth,” Leahy said.
Cal State LA is the highest ranked school in the U.S. based on the upward socioeconomic mobility of its students, according to a study published in The New York Times.
“For an institution like ours that is hungry to grow our retention and graduation rates, and to diversify our student base, we thought that was really relevant experience,” Leahy said.
Through the work of the search committee, the number of applicants was narrowed down from 100 to 40, then 12, Leahy explained. The remaining four held public forum-style webinars for the campus community to join and ask questions.
Each candidate managed a dozen or so interviews with different figures around the campus, Leahy explained. He collected all the feedback, considered individual inputs from faculty leadership, University deans, and other academic leaders.
“I spent a weekend contemplating it and decided that Pamela Scott-Johnson is the right person for us,” Leahy said. ”She enthusiastically accepted my invitation to come to Monmouth this summer and to serve in that really important role. “
Leahy looks forward to Scott-Johnson joining the University community in the coming months, helping to drive and support academic priorities, he explained in a statement to The Outlook.
“She is both an accomplished academician and experienced administrator with a deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Leahy wrote. “Beyond her sterling credentials, Dr. Scott-Johnson has an amiable personality that will undoubtedly enrich our campus community. She represents everything that I hoped for in a Provost candidate when we embarked on this national search in the fall, and I am gratified by the widespread support for Dr. Scott-Johnson across our university throughout the search process.”
PHOTO COURTESY of Monmouth University
