The First Woman President of Alabama State University

The board of trustees of Alabama State University has unanimously voted to name Gwendolyn Boyd as the 14th president of the 146-year-old historically Black university. When she takes office, Dr. Boyd will be the first woman to serve as president of Alabama State.

Dr. Boyd has been serving as the executive assistant to the chief of staff of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland. She is the former president of the 200,000-member Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

Dr. Boyd is a graduate of Alabama State University. She was the first African American to earn a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Yale University. She holds a second master’s degree and a doctorate from Howard University in Washington, D.C.