蜜桃APP

Dear 蜜桃APP Community:

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, please join me in welcoming Keith Elder, Ph.D., MPH, MPA, who will serve as 蜜桃APP鈥檚 21st president beginning March 1, 2024. Following an extensive national search guided by Academic Search, which specializes in higher education leadership, the Board of Trustees, with input from a representative set of community constituents, selected Dr. Elder from a diverse and impressive pool of candidates.

Dr. Elder comes to 蜜桃APP with extensive leadership, having most recently served as executive vice president of Mississippi College. Previously, he served as executive vice president and provost at Mississippi College and founding dean and professor of the School of Public Health at Samford University. Elder鈥檚 doctoral training was completed at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where he was a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Minority Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. He also served as chair for the Department of Health Management and Policy in the College for Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University (SLU) and as faculty for the Department of Health Management and Policy in the College for Public Health and Justice at the University of South Carolina鈥檚 Arnold School of Public Health.

Elder has spent the majority of his higher education career at faith-based institutions and has worked with colleagues to improve student success and access to higher education, regardless of socio-economic status. Elder remains an active scholar committed to evidence-based research that will help inform health programs, health policy, and health care delivery, with a specialized interest in men鈥檚 health, chronic disease management, health information technology as a means to promote health, aging and disability research, cancer prevention and outcomes, and reducing health disparities and inequities. He鈥檚 also served as principal investigator or investigator on funded projects by various health associations and institutes and as a member of the Editorial Board of the American Journal on Public Health.

We are grateful for the service of Interim President Rebecca Sherrick, which has sowed the seeds for a new culture of innovation and collaboration on campus. Under her leadership, 蜜桃APP has consolidated administrative units, expanded diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and created sustainable solutions to vexing academic problems. Her work has enhanced our capacity to collaborate and innovate in response to the changing needs of our student profile.

The Board of Trustees is eager to partner with Dr. Elder and the 蜜桃APP community to continue to build on this positive trajectory and will share more information about getting to know our new president in the coming months.

We thank each member of the Presidential Search Committee for their valuable contributions. We thank you, the 蜜桃APP community, for your unyielding commitment to our sacred mission and look forward to a bright future.

Sincerely,

Tasha Henderson, CPA, CGMA
Chair, Board of Trustees