Dr. M. Brian Blake has been named Georgia State University’s president by the University System Board of Regents.
Blake makes history as the university’s first Black president in its 114-year history.
“I’m deeply honored to have been selected as Georgia State president,” Blake said in a statement released by the university.
“I’m keenly aware of what President Becker and the faculty, staff and students have accomplished, and I am anxious to build on the university’s great momentum. Working together, I know we can take our university to new heights in the coming years.”
He is currently the executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at George Washington University and will begin his tenure at GSU on Aug. 9.
Blake is a computer scientist and software engineer. During his time at GWU, Blake oversaw the institution’s academic mission, supporting all academic endeavors and overseeing the research program across the university’s 10 schools and colleges.
Before that, he served as executive vice president for academics and the Nina Henderson Provost at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Blake helped Drexel recruit its most academically gifted class during his four-year tenure and achieve the highest retention rate in the university’s history.
Blake was also an associate dean for research and professor at the College of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame and was on the faculty of Georgetown University where he was chair of the Department of Computer Science.
“I am a true believer in a Georgia education,” Blake said. “My academic foundations were formed in the southern and northern parts of the state. I could not be more excited to return and play a part in the transformation of the lives of students, many of whom had beginnings just like my own.”
