Dr. Melva K. Wallace
Meet the President of Huston Tillotson University
For over twenty years Dr. Melva K. Wallace has worked in higher education as a leader and as a fierce national advocate. Today, she proudly serves as the seventh President and CEO of one of the top private liberal arts colleges in the country, Huston-Tillotson University, an HBCU in Austin, TX.
Huston-Tillotson University
The first institution of higher learning in the city of Austin, TX.
Since President Wallace who is affectionately know on social media as MKWthe7th has taken the helm, this powerhouse institution boasts increased fundraising efforts, increase in new student enrollment, increased international student enrollment, increased graduate enrollment, increased online enrollment, and boasts the largest male new student enrollment at 55% of the population.
A Legacy of Visionary Leadership.
President’s Links
As a fiscal conservative, Dr. Wallace has been highly successful in assisting institutions reach their financial goals and trains higher education CPAs on best practices for enrollment, cost controls, and fiscal compliance. To date, Wallace has been instrumental in amassing over $20 million in grants and gifts.
President Wallace is a Presidential Leadership Scholar who was selected in 2016 to study leadership under the tutelage of three former American Presidents, President George H. W. Bush, President George W. Bush, and President William J. Clinton. In 2020, she was heralded as “a futurist” by former President George W. Bush and was invited by The Bush Institute to be a featured writer for the Summer 2020 edition of The Catalyst: A Journal of Ideas from the Bush Institute on How Educators Can Prime First-Generation College Students for Success). (https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/still-leaving-them-behind/Wallace-keys-to- success-for-first-generation-college-students.html).
She is also the 2018 recipient of the ATHENA award which is the highest honor in the state of Louisiana for professional excellence, community service and for actively assisting women in their attainment of professional excellence and leadership skills. And, in 2022, Wallace was lauded by Diverse Higher Ed Magazine as one of the top 25 innovative and dynamic women leaders in the world who are paving the way for others in higher education. Additionally, in 2022 Wallace was recognized in the city of Shreveport as a Virginia Shehee award nominee as one of the top six most influential women in the city.