TOMIKIA LeGRANDE NAMED SOLE FINALIST FOR PVAMU PRESIDENT
Prairie View A&M University has selected who will serve as its next president.
(courtesy Prairie View A&M University)
Dr. Tomikia LeGrande was named on Thursday by the Texas A&M University System’s Board of Regents as the sole finalist to become Prairie View A&M’s ninth president.
Dr. LeGrande is currently the vice president for strategy, enrollment management and student success at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she has worked since 2018.
The board must wait 21 days before officially voting to approve her appointment. She would assume her duties at the end of the 2022-23 academic year, succeeding Dr. Ruth Simmons, who will become president emerita and will hold a faculty appointment as university professor.
Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp said Dr. LeGrande’s experience and leadership “is exactly what PVAMU needs at this juncture to build on the great work Ruth Simmons has provided these past five years.” He said Dr. LeGrande “will provide great leadership for the Panthers for many years to come.”
Prior to her time at Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr. LeGrande was an administrator for student affairs and enrollment management at the University of Houston-Downtown from 2012 to 2018. Before that, she worked at North Carolina A&T State University and Winston-Salem State University.
Dr. LeGrande received her bachelor’s in chemistry from Savannah State University and a master’s in chemistry from North Carolina A&T State University. She also received a doctorate in higher education administration from Texas Tech University.
Dr. LeGrande said PVAMU “has a strong legacy of transforming the lives of its students and contributing to the surrounding region and state of Texas, both educationally and economically.” She said she looks forward to working to “honor and build upon the university’s powerful legacy and upward trajectory.”