Key Leadership Appointments

St. John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

With the approval of the Board of Trustees and the support of President Gempesaw, Yohuru Williams, Ph.D., will serve as the new Dean of St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2020. 

Dr. Williams currently serves as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN). He is also a tenured Professor of History and a McQuinn Distinguished Chair. Before joining the University of St. Thomas in 2017, Dr. Williams held numerous leadership positions at Fairfield University, including Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Chair of the Department of History, and Director of Black Studies.

During the search process, Dr. Williams illustrated his extensive experience in Catholic higher education as a student, professor, and dean. Dr. Williams best demonstrated the ability to preserve and promote the Catholic and Vincentian mission of St. John’s University and to embed that mission in the academic life of St. John’s College and our diverse community of students and scholars.

In his role as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas, Dr. Williams oversees the largest of the university’s academic units, with 23 departments and 14 interdisciplinary and graduate programs that collectively serve close to 5,000 students. Dr. Williams has more than two decades of experience in higher education and brings outstanding leadership skills to St. John’s in many important and critical areas, including innovative curriculum design, student learning experiences and engagement, community partnerships, fundraising, and strategic planning. At St. Thomas, he has been a powerful advocate for interdisciplinary and liberal arts education as the key for preparing students to solve the complex problems of the 21st century.

Dr. Williams’ scholarly articles have appeared in the American Bar Association’s Insights on Law and Society, the Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, The Black Scholar, the Journal of Black Studies, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Delaware History, the Journal of Civil and Human Rights, and the Black History Bulletin. As an author of multiple books on the history of the civil rights and the black power movements, his expertise as a historian has led to appearances in local, national, and international news media, including CNN, History, Al Jazeera America, BET, C-SPAN, Fox Business News, Huff Post Live, and NPR.

In addition to his scholarly work, Dr. Williams served as the chief historian and vice president for public outreach and education at the Jackie Robinson Foundation in New York. Dr. Williams is the recipient of the Fairfield University Martin Luther King Jr. Vision Award, given to individuals who demonstrate a commitment to the ideals and values of Dr. King, and he was named a 2009 Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

A native of Bridgeport, CT, Dr. Williams earned a B.S. in Political Science and an M.A. in History from the University of Scranton, and his Ph.D. in History from Howard University.

Dr. Williams’ selection concludes a comprehensive national search with the assistance of Greenwood/Asher & Associates, Inc. led by Chair Michael A. Simons, J.D., Dean of the School of Law.