wfn.org | ABCUSA: Wilson-Oyelaran Named Kalamazoo College President

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Rich.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (Valley Forge, Pa. 1/20/05)--Dr. Eileen
Wilson-Oyelaran, currently vice president and dean of the college of
Salem Academy and College, Winston-Salem, N.C., has been named the 17th
president of American Baptist-related Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo,
Mich.

The school's Board of Trustees unanimously elected Wilson-Oyelaran to
her new position Dec. 11; she will begin her duties at the school in
July 2005.  Wilson-Oyelaran will succeed Dr. James F. Jones Jr., who
served as president from 1997 to June 2004.

Donald R. Parfet, chairman of the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees
and of the Presidential Search Committee, said that Wilson-Oyelaran
"clearly stood out as an ascendant national leader in higher education.
She is dedicated to the liberal arts and the value of global learning as
the means to bring people closer together while celebrating our
individual differences."

Wilson-Oyelaran previously served as associate professor and chair of
the department of education at Winston-Salem State University and
visiting scholar in education at North Carolina Wesleyan College. She
also taught in the departments of education and psychology at the
University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in Nigeria for 14
years and served as acting head of the department of psychology there
for five years.  While in Nigeria she was a consultant for UNICEF
(Nigeria) in the area of early childhood development.

In 1995 she became dean of the College at Salem College and later was
named vice president and dean of the College for Salem Academy and
College. She also served as acting president of that institution from
November 2003 to March 2004.

Wilson-Oyelaran holds a B.A. degree in sociology from Pomona College,
and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in education from the Claremont Graduate
University in California.  She has received numerous honors and awards,
including: the Kent Fellowship and the Ford Foundation National
Fellowship for graduate study; the Ada Mae Fitts Woman of the Year,
awarded to the most outstanding senior woman by the Pomona College
faculty; the Thomas J. Watson Traveling Fellowship; the Claremont
College's Black Studies Center Visionary Leadership Award; and the
American Council on Education Fellowship, one of the most prestigious
leadership training programs in higher education.

"As a strong proponent of intercultural and international education, I
have long admired K-College from a distance," Wilson-Oyelaran said when
elected. "The Kalamazoo College community and I share a sense of what
defines excellence in higher education. My vision for Kalamazoo College
is to build upon its excellence and carry forward its best traditions."

Kalamazoo College, founded in 1833 and the oldest college in Michigan,
is one of 16 colleges and universities related to American Baptist
Churches USA through National Ministries.  The school, which currently
has an enrollment of approximately 1,250 students, is consistently
ranked among the nation's best liberal arts colleges in the U.S. News
and World Report Best Colleges annual assessment.

K/2005ABNS/05ABN8

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA
x2077 / (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org