Transformative Leadership Award: Ben Vinson III, PhD, President of Howard University

By Mary Hendriksen
October 28th, 2024

Ben Vinson III, Ph.D, became the 18th president of Howard University in September 2023, where he is also a tenured professor of history in the University’s College of Arts and Sciences. Soon after his appointment to the presidency of Howard, Dr. Vinson met with Mr. Simon Harris, who was then Ireland’s Minister of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and now Taoiseach. That was a strategic meeting founded on collaborations instituted between Howard University and universities in Ireland and Northern Ireland—all with the goal of working in research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Dr. Vinson’s leadership at Howard University in these spheres is helping to create an important new ecosystem involving the African American community and Ireland, Northern Ireland, and the Irish Diaspora. It has also laid the foundation for further collaboration in the humanities and social sciences between America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Irish universities, as well as fostering important dialogue directly between the African American community and the Irish government.

Dr. Vinson earned his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and his doctorate from Columbia University. He has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Commission; the National Humanities Center; the Social Science Research Council; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and the Ford, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations.

Prior to his appointment at Howard, Dr. Vinson was most recently provost and executive vice president at Case Western Reserve University. During his tenure, Dr. Vinson spearheaded the university’s “Think Big” strategic planning initiative, which received national attention for its innovative and inclusive planning process.

Dr. Vinson has had multiple national appointments and positions of leadership. He is the immediate past chairman of the board of the National Humanities Center and a member of the board of the National Humanities Alliance. In a notable recognition of his contributions to scholarship and leadership, Dr. Vinson has been formally inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences. This honor places him among an elite cohort of 250 new members. He is a member of the Academy of Arts and Science’s Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, and currently chairs its subcommittee on higher education. He was elected vice president of the research division of the American Historical Association (AHA) in 2020, and is the current president-elect of that association.

A prominent scholar of Latin America, Dr. Vinson is the recipient of the 2019 Latin American Studies Association’s Howard F. Cline Book Prize in Mexican History for his book Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico (Cambridge University Press, 2017). He is the immediate past president of the Conference on Latin American History (CLAH). 

Additionally, Dr. Vinson served on the Association of American Universities’ (AAU) Advisory Board for Racial Equity in Higher Education, and is a former member of the AAU subcommittee on faculty advancement and tenure.

Prior to his appointments at Howard and Case Western, Dr. Vinson was dean of George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, professor of history and founding director of the Center for Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and on the faculties of Penn State and Barnard College.