Fall 2022 Commencement Speaker: Dr. Walter Kimbrough

Albany State University (ASU) will honor over 760 graduates at the fall commencement ceremony at 10 a.m., Saturday, December 10, at the Albany Civic Center. Doors open at 9 a.m.

Dr. Walter Kimbrough, interim executive director of the Morehouse College Black Men’s Research Institute (BMRI), will serve as the commencement speaker. 

Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough is the interim executive director of the Morehouse College Black Men’s Research Institute (BMRI), a first-of-its-kind institute dedicated to the in-depth, nuanced, and intersectional study of Black men, their impact, and societal influences. A distinguished educator and higher education administrator, Kimbrough previously served as the 12th president of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, AR., and most recently as the seventh president of Dillard University in New Orleans, La.

He has also held leadership roles in student affairs at Emory University, Georgia State University, Old Dominion University, and Albany State University. An Atlanta native, Kimbrough graduated as salutatorian from Benjamin Elijah Mays High School, which is named after the sixth president of Morehouse College, and later received his Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of Georgia, a Master of Science in college student personnel services from Miami University, and a Ph.D. in higher education from Georgia State University.

Kimbrough is an internationally recognized voice in higher education with a respected reputation for his research, published writings, and advocacy for African American men in college, historically Black colleges and universities, and fraternities and sororities, particularly historically Black, Latin, and Asian organizations.