1. Elizabeth Brown-Guillory, Ph.D.
Elizabeth Brown-Guillory is Distinguished Professor of Theatre and
Interim Dean of the Thomas F. Freeman Honors College at Texas
Southern University (TSU) in Houston, Texas, where she has served
since 2009. She recently completed a six-year appointment as
Associate Provost/Associate Vice President for Academic and Faculty
Affairs (2009-2015). She has had a broad range of administrative
experiences in higher education, including participating in strategic
(long and short-term) planning, accreditation processes, academic
assessment, program review, curriculum revision, faculty development,
and student support services. As Associate Provost, she collaborated
with senior leadership at TSU to synergistically link academic affairs to
enrollment management, student affairs, finance and administration, university advancement,
and athletics. She assisted in providing administrative oversight for academic and scholarly
activities on an urban campus that currently has an enrollment of 9,000 students. She played a
key role in facilitating the responsibilities of several academic support units, such as the library,
institutional effectiveness, student academic enhancement services, continuing and distance
education, and the University Teaching and Learning Excellence Center. She worked closely
with 10 academic deans, 20 associate and assistant deans, and 31 department chairs to offer
through TSU’s ten colleges and schools 53 baccalaureate degree programs, 36 master’s degree
programs, three Doctor of Philosophy degree programs and three professional doctoral degrees
in education, law and pharmacy. Dr. Brown-Guillory also oversaw faculty affairs and was
responsible for designing and implementing faculty professional development campus-wide.
Additionally, she oversaw the promotion and tenure process and the major university
ceremonies. She managed an annual budget of $5 million as well as assisted in overseeing
another $75 million allocated to the Academic Affairs and Research Division. Since July 2014,
she has served as Interim Dean of the Thomas F. Freeman Honors College and has been tasked
with leading the college to the next level of excellence, including developing a solid Honors
curriculum. She serves as both the Chief Academic Officer and the Chief Operating Officers for
the Honors College.
Prior to joining TSU, Dr. Brown-Guillory was employed for 21 years at the University of
Houston (UH), where she served as the Director of the Houston Suitcase Theatre (THST) for
seventeen (17) years. In her role as director, she led a collaborative campus-wide engagement
project to provide a creative arts space for underrepresented students. She administered a variety
of interdisciplinary projects (lecture series by distinguished professors, theatrical performances,
Erzulie dance troupe performances, conferences, creative writing contests, advising/mentoring
across majors, development of new courses in multi-ethnic literatures, etc.) designed to interface
with academic departments and programs, leading to an enhancement of multiculturalism in the
arts at the University of Houston. Her strong ability to collaborate with many groups enabled her
to secure and manage a budget provided by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost,
Office of Student Affairs and by deans, department chairs, and academic and non-academic
program directors. In return, she developed a successful marketing campaign for The Houston
Suitcase Theatre, which supported the university’s mission to increase diversity. Additionally,
she has held faculty appointments at the University of South Carolina-Upstate in Spartanburg,
South Carolina and at Dillard University in New Orleans.

2. She has over the course of her career won five teaching excellence awards, published four books,
ten plays, and a number of seminal essays in refereed journals as well as delivered over 200
lectures nationally and internationally. She is a leading scholar in black women’s theatre and has
taught courses in African American literature, world dramatic literatures, playwriting, and
women’s literature. Additionally, she has written, directed and produced plays for over thirty
years and is a nationally recognized Chautauqua scholar and performing artist. In the area of
service, she has held national and regional offices within organizations in higher education,
including serving as the president of a national honor society, Phi Kappa Phi (Chapter 41),
president and vice president of the South Central Modern Language Association, and delegate
assembly member of the Modern Language Association.
Dr. Brown-Guillory holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in English with thirty plus years of
experience as a teacher, theatre scholar and practitioner, and good citizen of the academy. She
views herself as a life-long learner and is sharpening her skills for her current job while
exploring the next level of responsibilities in higher education. She recently participated in a
yearlong leadership program, the Becoming a Provost Academy (BAPA), sponsored by the
American Association of State Colleges and Universities, as well as Creighton University’s
“Women Leaders in Higher Education” summer institute in 2013.