Atlanta — June 14, 2013

Board of Regents Chair “Dink” NeSmith and University System of Georgia (USG) Chancellor Hank Huckaby have announced the name of the finalist for the Fort Valley State University presidency.

A national search was launched to replace FVSU President Larry Rivers, who will serve through June 2013 before stepping down. Dr. Rivers served the USG in that role since 2006.

The recommended finalist is:

Dr. Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith, provost and senior vice president at York College of the City University of New York. Griffith also is a professor of political science.

He has served as provost since 2007 and during his tenure has increased the number of full-time faculty by 30 percent, reorganized the academic division and enhanced the research and scholarly climate by creating a Provost Lecture Series and a companion Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series, among other initiatives. Griffith also has established an undergraduate student research program.

Before being named provost at York College, Griffith, in addition to his teaching duties, served as provost at Radford University in Radford, Va. He was budget dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida International University in Miami, as well as dean of the FIU Honors College.

Griffith is a specialist on Caribbean security, drugs and crime. In this capacity, he has been a consultant to Canada’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other organizations.

He also has spoken at military academies across the United States and in the Caribbean, and serves on the editorial board of the journal Security and Defense Studies Review, which is published by the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, in Washington, DC.

A past president of the Caribbean Studies Association, he has been a visiting scholar at the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, the Royal Military College of Canada and the George Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany. He has testified before the United States Congress on Caribbean security matters.

Griffith has published seven books and more than 50 articles on his area of expertise. The research for his highly-acclaimed book, Drugs and Security in the Caribbean: Sovereignty Under Siege, was funded by the MacArthur Foundation, and his next book, Challenged Sovereignty, will be published in 2014 by the University of Illinois Press.

Most recently, he was one of 45 experts recently invited by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States to review the hemisphere’s narcotics policies and practices and propose anti-narcotics scenarios.

A member of The 100 Black Men of Long Island, he also serves on the Vestry of the St. Georges Episcopal Church in Long Island, and on the board of directors of the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning in Queens, New York.

Griffith earned a bachelor of social sciences degree from the University of Guyana, Demerara-Mahaica, Guyana, a masters of arts degree in political science and public administration from Long Island University, New York, and both a master of philosophy and doctorate in political science from the City University of New York.

The Board of Regents is expected to name the next president of Fort Valley State University at a future meeting. Georgia law requires the naming of finalist(s) a minimum of five days prior to final Board action to select the president.

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