By: Arrman Kyaw for Diverse Issues in Higher Education

Dr. Rochelle Ford will become the next president of Dillard University, a historically Black university in New Orleans.

“I want to make sure that the faculty can really investigate the complexities that we’re facing in the Black community and the wider diaspora, but particularly New Orleans because New Orleans is resilient and is facing so many challenges,” Ford said. “How can we show that Dillard is a courageous place for faculty or staff or students and that we really can represent our communities with fearless action? Speak truth to power.”

Ford is currently the dean of Elon University’s School of Communications. Other roles she’s held in the past include a stint as associate dean of research and academic affairs in Howard University’s School of Communications and chair of the public relations department at the Syracuse University S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.