Dr. Dolores Spikes

Dr. Dolores Margaret Richard Spikes was appointed president of the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore in January 1997. She holds the distinction of being the first female head of a Louisiana public college or university.

Prior to this appointment, Spikes served as president of the Southern University and A&M College System. She began her career with Southern University as an assistant professor of mathematics and moved through the ranks to associate professor of mathematics and then full professor of mathematics, teaching courses that ranged from the developmental educational level to the graduate level.

From August to December 1981, she served as full-time professor of mathematics, coordinator of the Mathematics Developmental Education Program, and part-time assistant to the chancellor. She served as assistant to the chancellor on the Southern University at Baton Rouge Campus from January 1982 to August 1985, then becoming executive vice president and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs. In July 1987, she was chosen to serve as chancellor of Southern University at New Orleans, and from October 1988 to June 1991, she held the position of chancellor of Southern University at Baton Rouge.

Spikes earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from Louisiana State University in December 1971. She holds an M.S. in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana as well as a B.S. in mathematics from Southern University at Baton Rouge.

A summa cum laude graduate, she won numerous university awards, honors, and memberships while studying or working at Southern University. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society, Pi Mu Epsilon Honorary Fraternity in Mathematics, and the Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society. She was selected as "Woman of the Year" by Southern University at Baton Rouge's Association of Women Students in 1986 as Southern University's Outstanding Alumnus of the Century in 1990.

In 1989, Spikes received the Thurgood Marshall Educational Achievement Award and was featured in the January 1990 issue of Ebony Magazine. Ebony Man Magazine recognized her as one of the 20 "Most Influential Black Women in America."

Spikes serves or has served on numerous bodies, including the National Association of Equal Opportunity in Higher Education Board of Directors and the Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a regional accrediting agency. She was recently appointed to serve on the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education and Economics Advisory Board (U.S. Department of Agriculture) and is a member of the PBS Advisory Board.

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Debbie Boone
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