Kent Smith, Jr. was named sixteenth president of Langston University by the OSU and A&M Board of Regents on January 19, 2012, and assumed office on June 4, 2012. He also serves as professor of education.
Heralded by his contemporaries as a student-focused, deeply committed, dynamic leader, Smith brings with him the experience and potential to take Oklahoma’s only historically black institution of higher education to the next level of academic excellence and national preeminence.
Prior to coming to Langston, he served as the vice president for student affairs, chief student affairs officer and assistant professor of education at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He is a former dean of students at Auburn University in Alabama, director of multicultural affairs at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, and assistant director of black student services and adjunct professor of education at Colorado State University. He was also an adjunct professor at Cleveland State University.
A Louisiana native, Smith earned a bachelor’s in secondary education and a master’s in educational administration and supervision from Southern University in Baton Rouge, and a doctorate in education and human resources studies, with a concentration in educational administration and student affairs, from Colorado State in Fort Collins.
He and his wife Tiffany are the parents of three sons – Trey, Tyler and Trent – and daughter Morgan, who is currently enrolled at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
