Atlanta — May 30, 2007

Dr. Earl G. Yarbrough Sr., full professor and former provost and vice president for academic and student affairs at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Va., was named today as president of Savannah State University by the Board of Regents.

Yarbrough is expected to assume his new post in July.

Regent Elridge McMillan served as chair of the Special Regents’ Committee charged with interviewing the presidential finalists submitted by the campus-based Presidential Search and Advisory Committee and making a recommendation to the chancellor and full Board of Regents for final approval. “Dr. Yarbrough was an extremely impressive finalist with two decades of experience as an academic administrator. He already has made significant contributions to three historically black universities, and we have every reason to believe he will do even more for Savannah State,” McMillan said.

“Dr. Yarbrough has shown himself to be a highly ethical and student-oriented administrator,” said Beheruz N. Sethna, interim executive vice chancellor in charge of the University System of Georgia’s comprehensive universities. “He has enhanced the quality of graduates and teaching at his previous institutions through the expansion of research and scholarly activities and outreach/service efforts.”

In 2004, while a tenured professor of industrial technology at Virginia State University, Yarbrough completed a year-long fellowship in Washington, D.C., with the Kellogg Foundation Minority Serving Institution Leadership Program that prepares minority professionals for the challenges and rigors of becoming university presidents, chancellors or other senior leadership roles in higher education. He has also completed the Harvard University Institute for Educational Management.

Yarbrough was the chief academic and student affairs officer at Virginia State from 1998 to 2003, managing approximately $75 million in state and federal funds, tuition and fees, research dollars, and grants and gifts awarded to the university. As provost, he directed the university’s five-year strategic plan and supervised the institution’s day-to-day academic concerns. Under Yarbrough’s leadership, a School of Engineering, Science and Technology and a School of Graduate Studies, Research and Outreach were established, a comprehensive student support center opened, several new degree programs were developed, including a high-demand doctor-of-education program, and VSU established a University Council to represent faculty, staff, administrators and students. Also during Yarbrough’s tenure as provost, VSU experienced a significant increase in state support, funded grants, grant proposals and alumni and corporate giving.

Yarbrough also has administrative experience at two other public historically black universities, having served as the first dean of the School of Technology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, N.C., from 1986 to 1998 and chair of the Industrial Technology Department at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in Pine Bluff, Ark., from 1984 to 1986.

As dean at North Carolina A&T, he built a student support center and played a key role in obtaining state funding for a new $8 million building, received more than $15 million in research grants and contracts, equipment and scholarships, added undergraduate and graduate programs, and established several 2+2 articulation agreements. As a department chair at the University of Arkansas, Yarbrough increased student enrollment in industrial technology programs by 25 percent and developed and implemented a successful technology transfer and symposium program.

In addition, Yarbrough has held full professorships at Virginia State University (1998-present), North Carolina A & T (1986-1998), the University of Arkansas (1984-1986) and Northeastern Oklahoma State University in Tahlequah, Okla. (1982-84).

Yarbrough earned a Ph.D. in industrial education from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, in 1976, a master of arts in industrial studies from California State University at Los Angeles in 1974 and a bachelor of arts in industrial education from Wichita State University in Wichita, Kan., in 1969.

He is married to Patricia A. Yarbrough and has four grown children.

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