Attorney Lezli Baskerville appointed NAFEO Interim President

4/30/2004

From: Tola Thompson of NAFEO, 301-650-2440

WASHINGTON, April 30 -- By a unanimous vote the Board of Directors of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) resolved to move in a new direction relative to staff leadership. Additionally, the Board initiated several other immediate actions designed to strengthen the association, add greater value to its members and institutions, and enhance its corporate, strategic, and associational partnerships.

In announcing the actions, NAFEO Board Chairman, Dr. William R. Harvey, President of Hampton University stated, "these are times of both new challenges and new opportunities. We want to make certain that NAFEO has the right people with the right skills and the right information. We want to be sure that we have the right infrastructure and the right systems to well serve our members and partners, to realize our associational priorities, meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the day and into the future."

Attorney Lezli Baskerville was appointed Interim President, to provide transitional leadership to the NAFEO staff and the association as the search for a president is conducted. Ms. Baskerville's professional career is rooted in NAFEO. She began working with NAFEO as a legal research associate for Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law Herbert O. Reid, Sr., and has worked with NAFEO over the years in many capacities, including as a member of the legal team that negotiated the consent decree in the landmark higher education institutional equalization case of Adams v. Califano; as a member of the NAFEO brief writing teams in the landmark Supreme Court affirmative action cases of Bakke, Weber, and Fullilove; as a program director; and as outside counsel.

Attorney Baskerville has also served as Vice President for Government Relations of The College Board, founding member of The Baskerville Group, a legal and legislative services collective, an administrative appeals judge for employee appeals in the District of Columbia, National Legislative Counsel for the NAACP, Executive Director of the National Black Leadership Roundtable, a member of the appellate team at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, a congressional staffer, and a law clerk in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

In accepting the appointment as Interim President, Attorney Baskerville said, "I am deeply appreciative to the NAFEO Board of Directors for affording me the opportunity to serve NAFEO, its presidents and chancellors, and member institutions, from this new vantage. I grew up professionally in and providing service to NAFEO and its member institutions. I hope that my familiarity with the Association, my years of training and experience; my professional relationships; my instincts for people and politics; my passion for prodding educational access, equity and excellence and preserving and enhancing HBCUs, will serve the association well as I provide transitional stewardship to the umbrella association of the nation's 118 historically and predominately black colleges and universities."

Other actions by the Board include the following:

-- The appointment of Dr. Carlton Brown, President of Savannah State University to chair a search committee for a new NAFEO president. Drs. John Gibson, President of Alabama A&M University; Haywood Strickland, President of Wiley College; Ernest McNealey, President of Stillman College; and Joann Boyd- Scotland, President of Denmark Technical College, will also serve on the committee to conduct the national search;

-- The appointment of a Bylaws Review Committee that will be chaired by Dr. Norman Francis, President of Xavier University. Drs. Leon Tarver, President of the Southern University System; Charles Simmons, President of Sojourner Douglass College; Beverly Hogan, President of Tougaloo College; and George Barnes, President of Hinds Community College are the other members of this committee.

-- The appointment of Dr. Ronald Mason, President of Jackson State University to chair a committee which will be charged to further examine and recommend appropriate action to address any issues that the membership may have raised during the last several weeks. Drs. Marie McDemmond, President of Norfolk State University; Clinton Bristow, President of Alcorn State; Dianne Suber, President of St. Augustine's College; and Harold Wade, President of Atlanta Metropolitan College are the other members of this committee. The Board will receive the report from the committee at the July meeting in Hilton Head.

Dr. William R. Harvey stated, "the Board appreciates the contributions made by Dr. Frederick Humphries and wishes him well in the future. We have a new opportunity to strengthen our association and begin a new transformation from 'good to great.' In doing so, our institutions, our faculties and staffs, and our students will also be strengthened."