THE Council of the University of Guyana has announced that Professor Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith has accepted its offer to become Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Guyana’s premier tertiary learning institution. He is scheduled to assume office as UG Vice-Chancellor on June 14, 2016.A statement issued by the University of Guyana on Tuesday said Professor Griffith was selected after an exhaustive national, regional and international search that had short listed three candidates and evaluated them based on a series of lectures, their credentials, and an interview by the Search Committee appointed by the Council.

Professor Griffith, who has the honour of being the University of Guyana’s first student to graduate with Distinction in Political Science, in 1980, has an outstanding record as a scholar, academic leader, and teacher. He is currently Executive-in-Residence at the University at Albany State University of New York, and has held a number of other leadership positions, including President of Fort Valley State University in Georgia (2013-2015), Provost and Senior Vice President at York College in New York (2007-2013), Provost at Radford University in Virginia (2006-2007), Dean of the Honours College at Florida International University (2001-2006), and Budget Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida International University (1998-2001). All the while he has maintained his tenure as a political science professor.

He views his appointment as “returning to the place where my academic journey began”, and as an opportunity to make a significant contribution to his homeland.

According to Professor Griffith, “Guyana’s sole national institution of higher learning is a long-neglected educational enterprise that must be transformed into a meaningful facilitator of educational and economic development for citizens and society. It must foster dreaming and doing about changing personal and societal realities, and enable discovery in all relevant fields.”

Professor Griffith considers UG “a pillar of the nation’s economic and social development”, and looks forward to working with governmental, alumni, business, civic, and other stakeholders to enable UG to provide a platform to explore myriad opportunities and be a stimulus for innovation.

In an invited comment, Chancellor Nigel Harris said, “The University of Guyana welcomes Professor Ivelaw Griffith, whose scholarly achievements and leadership experience are well suited to the central role he must play in transforming the institution.”

Professor Griffith has gained international recognition as one of the leading scholars in the fields of Caribbean and hemispheric security, drugs and crime. He has published seven books and more than 50 academic and policy articles, and has been quoted in numerous media, including the New York Times, BBC World Service, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Jamaica Gleaner and Barbados Nation newspapers.

In addition, he has served as a consultant to the Commonwealth Secretariat, USAID, Canada’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has testified before the U.S. Congress on security issues.

The new Vice-Chancellor has been a visiting scholar at the Perry Centre for Hemispheric Defence Studies in Washington DC, the Royal Military College in Canada, and the George Marshall European Centre for Security Studies in Germany. He was one of 45 experts commissioned by the OAS Secretary General to review hemispheric drug policies and practices, and offer anti-drug scenarios. For his exceptional work in his field of expertise, he was awarded the 2015 William J. Perry Award, named in honour of former United States Defence Secretary Dr William J. Perry.

In addition to his Bachelor of Social Science (Political Science, with Distinction) degree from the University of Guyana, he has also secured a Diploma in Communications from UG. Moreover, he holds a Master of Arts degree from Long Island University in New York, and a Master of Philosophy and PhD degrees in Political Science from the City University of New York Graduate School. Further, he completed the programme in Educational Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Professor Griffith is married to Francille Griffith, with whom he has parented two adult children.