A familiar face in Jackson State circles has been chosen as the university’s 14th president.
After evaluating roughly 80 candidates and whittling the list down to just a few finalists during an eight-month national search, Mississippi’s Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning announced Thursday it selected Dr. Denise Jones Gregory as president of Mississippi’s largest HBCU. Gregory has served as interim president since May 2025 after Dr. Marcus Thompson resigned from the post amid litigation pending against him.
Gregory was selected following first-round interviews of eight candidates, second-round interviews of three candidates, and detailed background and references checks conducted by AGB Search consultants, a firm the state used to assist in the search.
Before taking on the new role, she worked as provost and vice president of academic affairs at Jackson State. Her candidacy for her new position became much more viable when the state added a group of individuals connected to Jackson State to the search process and later revoked a policy restricting an interim president from submitting their name as a candidate for the permanent position.
Both moves seemingly signaled a shift from traditional IHL policy to a new one that emphasized feedback from those with a deeply rooted interest in the university.
“The Board of Trustees put a tremendous amount of time and energy into this search process, and we are confident in Dr. Gregory’s ability to help write the next chapter in Jackson State University’s long history,” said Dr. Steven Cunningham, vice president of the IHL Board of Trustees and chair of the search committee.
“I also want to recognize and thank the members of the Search Advisory Constituency, who spent hours reviewing applications and interviewing candidates. Their commitment to this process was critical and deeply appreciated,” Cunningham continued.
Gregory graduated magna cum laude from Jackson State in 1994, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in chemistry. She earned her doctorate in chemistry from Georgia Tech.
She completed additional training through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is a graduate of the New Presidents Academy through the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and completed the Willa B. Player Executive Leaders Program and the HBCU Executive Leadership Institute Program, both through Clark Atlanta University.
“This has been a long and involved process, and we’ve worked closely with the Board of Trustees through the reviewing and interviewing of candidates to reach this point,” said Patrease Edwards, a member of the Search Advisory Constituency and president of the Jackson State National Alumni Association. “Today, we begin a new and exciting part of the story of Jackson State, and we are prepared to support Dr. Gregory as she takes on this role.”
Gregory’s tenure as Jackson State president begins immediately
