APLU President M. Christopher Brown II
President M. Christopher Brown II
A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Dr. M. Christopher Brown II earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from South Carolina State University, a Master of Science in Education Policy and Evaluation from the University of Kentucky, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Higher Education from the Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Brown earned his Ph.D. at the age of 25 and joined the faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He later joined the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and The Pennsylvania State University where he earned tenure at age 29. During an extended leave of absence, Dr. Brown served as Executive Director of the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute, Director at the American Educational Research Association, and Vice President at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
At the age of 35, Dr. Brown was named Professor and Dean of the College of Education at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas before being appointed a University Professor, Executive Vice President and Provost at the historic Fisk University. On November 30, 2010 at the age of 39, the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning elected him to the position unanimously as the 18th president of the nation’s first historically black land-grant institution – Alcorn State University – in Lorman, Mississippi. President Brown is the youngest HBCU president in the nation.
As an authority on HBCUs and land-grant universities, Dr. Brown is leading the charge to increase funding for agricultural research and to expand global programs and activities at Alcorn. He is determined to prepare Alcorn students to succeed in the global marketplace while fostering in each leadership qualities that will prove valuable to both themselves and the communities in which they live. Highly regarded by students, faculty, staff and alumni, Dr. Brown promotes transparency and collaboration across disciplines and among stakeholder and constituents groups.
Since being named Alcorn’s President in November 2010, Dr. Brown has reinvigorated one of most important public college campuses in America. Under his leadership, Alcorn has experienced record enrollment growing to over 4000 students for the first time in its 140 plus year history. Dr. Brown dedicated a $47 million, state-of-the-art student housing complex named for the late Medgar Evers and spearheaded the renaming and dedication of Highway 552 in honor of the university’s longest-tenured president, Dr. Walter Washington. In addition to establishing the Office of Educational Equity and Inclusion, Dr. Brown hired the first non-black head football coach in both institutional and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) history.
As President of “The Great Alcorn State”, Dr. Brown works to develop and maintain a campus atmosphere dedicated to “excellence without excuse”. Without question, President Brown has increased awareness of the institutional brand and enhanced its recognition. In 2012 Alcorn State University received the highly coveted HBCU of the Year Award, and in 2013 Dr. Brown was named Male HBCU President of the Year – both from the National Center for HBCU Media Advocacy.
An international scholar, President Brown has lectured and/or presented research in various countries on six continents – Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, the 100 Black Men of America, Rotary International, and a 33rd degree Free and Accepted Mason Prince Hall Affiliation. Dr. Brown is the recipient of many awards and honors, including The 100 Black Men of Charleston 2002 Image Award, the 2004 Pennsylvania State University Alumni Achievement Award, the 2007 Philip C. Chinn Book Award from the National Association for Mul
