Dr. Carmen J. Walters was appointed by the Board of Trustees of Tougaloo College as the institution’s fourteenth president in its 151-year existence. Dr. Walters is a well-respected, driven, and knowledgeable scholar who possesses a wide range of skills. She has led curriculum and policy development, fundraising, student enrollment and retention management, team building, conflict resolution, strategic planning, and organizational management for more than 24 years. In order to assure student achievement, she is known for utilizing cooperative collaborations with public and private organizations to allow staff, teachers, and students to engage in creative education beyond institutional borders.
A supporter of the liberal arts, Dr. Walters loves the rich history of Tougaloo College and has high aspirations for upholding and expanding the school’s reputation of social responsibility and academic brilliance as it enters a new decade of leadership and learning. She is a native of Harvey, Louisiana, and holds degrees in accounting and business administration from Southern University, master’s in postsecondary counseling from Xavier University, and doctorate from Mississippi State University.
Dr. Walters served in a variety of executive roles at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College for six years prior to taking on the role of president at Tougaloo College. These roles included campus vice president of the Jackson County campus and executive vice president of enrollment management, student success, and institutional relations for ten locations. She was in charge of significant remodeling and fundraising campaigns. Her strategic enrollment management approach for the university raised the number of conventional and dual-enrolled high school students, which had a beneficial impact on graduation and retention rates.
About the Institution
Church-related but not church-controlled, Tougaloo College is a four-year liberal arts school that is private, coeducational, and historically black. Situated on 500 acres of property on Jackson, Mississippi’s northern border along West County Line Road. According to Good Biblical Style, the American Missionary Association was founded as a result of the renowned Amistad court case, which liberated Africans who had been accused of mutiny after they had slain several of the slave ship Amistad’s captor crew and taken control of the vessel. Tougaloo College and its five sister colleges were founded by the American Missionary Association. Because of its strong academic reputation and commitment to social responsibility, Tougaloo College has acquired recognition across the country.
