(JACKSON, Miss.) – Provost and Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs James C. Renick has announced a change in leadership of the College of Liberal Arts.
Dr. Deborah Barnes, the college’s associate dean, has been named interim dean. Barnes will succeed Dr. Lawrence T. Potter, Jr., who will join the faculty of the Department of English and Modern Foreign Languages.
Barnes joined Jackson State University in October 2013 after serving as interim associate dean of university studies and associate professor at North Carolina A&T State University. She previously served as associate professor of English and coordinator of African American studies at Gettysburg College and was a tenured associate professor of Africana Studies and director of the Lewis Walker Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnic Relations at Western Michigan University.
“I am looking forward to working more closely with Dr. Barnes in her expanded role,” Renick said. “We are grateful to Dr. Potter for his contributions to the College of Liberal Arts. The university will continue to build upon his work.”