LANGSTON, Okla.
Dr. JoAnn W. Haysbert was formally installed Saturday as president of Langston University, becoming Oklahoma’s first Black, female university president.
Haysbert succeeded Dr. Ernest L. Holloway, Langston’s 14th president, who served 25 years at the helm of the historically Black college. She was installed one year and two months into her tenure at the university.
“This is not a celebration of one individual,” Haysbert said to several hundred employees, alumni, family, friends and higher education and state government officials. “Rather, it is a celebration of the past, the present and the future of this great institution.”
In Haysbert’s first year, she has led the creation of a 10-year strategic plan, hired several new administrators and promoted “timeless human values,” such as serving others, to students and employees.
She also created an ambassadors program in which upperclassmen take a leadership class taught by her and serve as role models to freshmen.
