JOHNSON C. SMITH UNIVERSITY IS IN ITS EXCELLENCE ERA
BY BRITTANEY CARTER
her mission to elevate JCSU to become a top 10 HBCU. She is driving this mission in a cultural climate of resistance, where DEI initiatives are facing backlash. The pressure Dr. Kinloch places on herself, in this new role, comes from her deep understanding of this particular social and political moment that we are in, and the recognition that HBCUs like JCSU must lead the charge in such times. A 1996 graduate of the institution, Dr. Kinloch has a spate of both professional and personal experiences that have equipped her to lead the university, starting with her background as a daughter of working-class parents. Dr. Kinloch grew up in an extended family in Charleston, SC as the only daughter, with two older brothers, of her parents. Her father always believed he
could do anything in the world even when “every opportunity denied him access.” Her mother worked hard to become a nurse. Dr. Kinloch remembers, “I entered JCSU in June of 1992, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay for this education.” That personal crisis provides President Kinloch with a unique perspective into what many current students are facing: financial precarity, uncertainty about their futures and lack of immediate awareness of professional opportunities. Dr. Kinloch knows the talent and intellect of students can be stunted by conditions beyond their control. This is why, as the President of JCSU, one of Dr. Kinloch’s first administrative priorities has been to increase endowments and scholarships to support students in need of
W hen Dr. Valerie Kinloch stepped onto the campus of Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) on August 3, 2023, it was a grand homecoming. Newly minted as the president of the only HBCU in Charlotte, NC and the number one private HBCU in North Carolina, Dr. Kinloch was determined to usher in a “New Era of Excellence” at her beloved alma mater. It was no small goal. “When the Johnson C. Smith University Board of Trustees called and said, ‘We would love to offer you this job,’ I
had a moment. And the moment was, I don’t know if I can take this job because if I go to my alma mater, failure is not an option,” she recalled recently in front of a rapt audience of business, education and non-profit leaders
at the Women Executives of Charlotte (WE) Luncheon.
In the public conversation between Dr. Kinloch and LaRita Barber, President of Women Executives of Charlotte and Chief Advancement Officer of Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont, Dr. Kinloch shared
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