George Wright

Senior Adviser to the President

Born in 1950. Scholar. University of Kentucky B.A. 1972, M.A., 1974.

Noted African-American scholar, he is the seventh president of Prairie View A&M University, the second oldest institution of higher education in Texas. Prior to joining the Prairie View A&M family, Wright was executive vice-president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Texas at Arlington.

In 1993 he joined the faculty at Duke University as vice provost for university programs and director of the Afro-American studies program. At Duke, he also held the William R. Kenan Jr. Chair in American History. From 1980 to 1993, he served as an assistant professor, associate professor, professor, and was the holder of the Mastin Gentry White Professorship of Southern History, and vice provost for undergraduate education at the University of Texas at Austin. His wealth of experience in higher education began as an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky in 1977.

He has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, grants and awards. At the University of Texas at Austin, he received the Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence. He was awarded the Andrew W. Melton Faculty Fellowship at Harvard University and was the Friar Society Centennial Fellow for Teaching Excellence, the Silver Spurs Centennial Teaching Fellow and the Lillian and Tom B. Rhodes Centennial Teaching Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 2004 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Kentucky.

George C. Wright was inducted into the Hall of Distinguished Alumni on May 13, 2005.