Placed Leaders

Melissa Gilliam

President

Boston University

Storbeck Search | Diversified Search Group partnered with Boston University to conduct a nationwide search that resulted in the appointment of Melissa Gilliam as the University’s 11th President.

A national leader in faculty recruitment and student success and a champion of diversity and inclusion, Gilliam is also a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of pediatrics whose scholarship focuses on developing interventions to promote adolescent health and well-being. Beyond her background in science and medicine, Gilliam, who studied English literature at Yale and got her Master of Arts in philosophy and politics from University of Oxford, says she was raised to embrace the societal importance of arts and culture. Her late father was a pioneering abstract painter who was known for a career of continuous experimentation and innovation. And her mother was a trailblazing journalist and the first Black female reporter hired by the Washington Post. Her parents instilled in her an intellectual curiosity and a firm belief in the importance of civic engagement and public service.

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