Founder’s Day, Homecoming Celebration occurs same week for the first time in university  history

For the first time in Grambling State University history, Founder’s Day and Homecoming Celebration will occur in the same week. Dr. Kizuwanda Gayden Grant, Chief Administrative Officer for Paul Quinn College (PQC), located in Dallas, will serve as keynote speaker during Grambling State University’s annual Founder’s Day Convocation.

Set for November 1, the official opening of Founder’s Day will begin with a ceremony at 8:00 a.m. Nov. 1 at the bust of Grambling State’s founder, Charles P. Adams, which is located on the east side of Lee Hall. Founder’s Day Convocation will be held at 10 a.m. in the Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center.

In January 2010, Grant began working as the Chair and associate professor of the Teacher Education Program, the only federally approved Urban Work College and HBCU.

Grant was asked to assume the Vice President of Academic Affairs role in December of 2010, becoming one of the youngest Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs in the country at the age of 34.

In 2016, the Academic Affairs role at Paul Quinn was split into two, with Grant retaining the functions of accreditation, compliance, university partnerships, and student affairs, including student conduct and Title IX responsibilities.

Currently, as the Chief Administrative Officer, Dr. Grant is also responsible for the Work Program, Financial Aid, Athletics, Human Resources and most recently coordinated PQC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to joining PQC, she served as Executive Dean for Communication and Teacher Education at Mountain View College in Dallas, TX, and the Associate Dean of Instruction and Assistant to the Provost at North Central Texas College, in Corinth, TX.

Grant said she is proud of her work to assist in the implementation of mental health support services for PQC students, especially the expansion to a Mental Health and Wellness Clinic, which opened on campus in 2016.

The clinic is staffed by two licensed counselors, and psychiatry services are available to students through a partnership with the School of Psychiatry at the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Grant successfully secured two sizable grants from the Texas Governor’s Office and the Trellis Foundation, to support students’ access to mental health services, and the basic needs of grant-eligible students, such as housing, transportation, and meals.

Over the past two years Grant led the successful completion of PDC’s Fifth Year Reaffirmation Process with the college’s accreditor, the Transnational Association for Christian College and Schools (TRACS), and obtained approval from TRACS, and the required state and federal approvals, for PQC’s first graduate program, the T.D. Jakes Executive MBA. The new master’s degree is jointly offered with the Jakes Divinity School, also located in Dallas. Applications are now being accepted for the first cohort. The mission of the new MBA program is to prepare the next generation of Christian leaders for the global marketplace.

For the past five years, Grant has also served as a Commissioner for TRACS and was elected Vice Chair of the TRACS Commission in 2021. She is the first African American female to serve on the Executive Committee. Grant also serves as a member of the Board of Governors for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and is a member of Friendship West Baptist Church.

Grant has served as a college administrator in different institutions for twenty years. While continuing to serve the students of PQC, she said she is looking forward to returning to the classroom to inspire future higher education professionals.

She is also exploring research and consulting opportunities in the areas of accreditation, institutional effectiveness, and the compliance processes of higher education institutions, especially HBCUs.

Grant earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of North Texas (2005), a M.S. in Mathematics Education, from Columbia University Teachers College (2001), and a B.S. in Secondary Education – Mathematics, from Grambling State University (1998), finishing number two in her December 1998 graduating class.

While a student at Grambling, she was a Presidential Scholar, inducted into the Earl Lester Cole Honors College, under the leadership of the late Dr. Helen Richards Smith, and worked as a research assistant for Dr. Parashu Sharma, in the math and computer science department.

She said that as a student at Grambling, she quietly observed the work of both former Interim President Dr. Neari Warner and the current Honors College Dean Dr. Ellen Smiley not knowing at that time she would draw on their leadership models in her own future work in higher education.

Grant is the youngest daughter of Curtis and Wilma Gayden, and is originally from Seattle, WA. She signed up for a career in education while a sophomore in the Teaching Academy, then in place at Rainier Beach High School. She currently resides with her family in Arlington, TX. Her greatest and most rewarding role as Mom allows her to experience the world through the excited eyes of Lauryn Jai (8) and Jamie DeSean (11).