Three candidates will advance to the final round of the search for Southern University’s next president.
Brian Bridges, Roscoe Jones and Larissa Littleton-Steib will be considered by the Southern University Board of Supervisors to lead the public historically Black university system, which has campuses in Baton Rouge, Shreveport and New Orleans.
The search committee interviewed — Jaffus Hardrick, Willie Smith, John Belton, Bridges, Jones and Littleton-Steib — throughout the day Friday in Baton Rouge. The interviews were done in executive session, though each candidate was allowed opening remarks to the public.
Who are the finalists?
Bridges is a senior adviser at the education consulting firm Whiteboard Advisors and the former secretary of higher education for the state of New Jersey. He served as a vice president for the United Negro College Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that funds scholarships and advocates for HBCUs, as well as chief diversity officer for Ohio University. He has a doctorate in higher education from Indiana University.
In his opening remarks, Bridges said he is a “Southern gentleman with Northern sensibilities” who saw the “emancipating power of a higher education” while growing up in New York.
“I am committed to making sure that people who look like me have every opportunity they can if they want to go to college, and be able to succeed and thrive in life afterward,” Bridges said. “I’ve dedicated my life to an access agenda.”
Jones is the former dean of Drake University Law School. He sat on the boards of multiple legal organizations and served on numerous political staffs, including as senior counsel for U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., chief of staff for former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, now the Democratic governor of Virginia, and acting chief of staff and legislative director for late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. He has his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
In his statement to the committee, Jones said his life represents Southern’s mission. His mother was an educator, and his father was an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps who marched at Selma during the Civil Rights Movement, he said. He also emphasized his political experience and said he knows how to lobby for Southern in both Baton Rouge and Washington.
“This institution is more than a university,” Jones said. “It is an idea. It is a promise, and it is a promise that lives in the lives of all of our constituents.”
Littleton-Steib is chancellor of Delgado Community College in the New Orleans area. She previously served as chancellor of Baton Rouge Community College. Early in her career, she worked as a special education teacher with the Jefferson Parish School System. She holds a doctorate from Jackson State University in urban higher education administration.
Littleton-Steib said her connections in government and industry position her to lead the Southern system. She secured more than $60 million in philanthropic investments at Delgado, she said, adding that the college is in talks with Meta and SpaceX.
“I am poised and ready,” Littleton-Steib said. “I have the connections and the relationships to take this system to the next level.”