Georgia College & State University President Cathy Cox announced changes in the academic leadership of the university for the coming 2024-25 academic year, which begins with the first day of classes on Monday, Aug. 19.
Chancellor Sonny Perdue of the University System of Georgia (USG) requested that University Provost Dr. Costas Spirou serve as the interim chief academic officer of the USG for the coming year while the current Chief Academic Officer Dr.
Ashwani Monga serves as the interim president of the University of West Georgia in Carrollton.
Spirou is expected to return to his position as provost at GCSU at the conclusion of this assignment, but that date is at this point uncertain.
While Spirou is serving in this temporary assignment, Dr. Holley Roberts, associate provost for Academic Affairs and director of the GCSU Graduate School, will serve as the interim provost of Georgia College.
Dr. Mandy Jarriel, professor and assistant director of the School of Health and Human Performance, will serve as the interim associate provost for Academic Affairs and director of The Graduate School.
“This sounds like a complicated movement of dominoes in our academic leadership,” said Cox, “but we are fortunate to have outstanding leaders like Costas Spirou, who has been called on to take the lead in the University System of Georgia, and equally strong successors like Holley Roberts and Mandy Jarriel. The entire academic program at Georgia College is strong because of the depth of our faculty and academic leaders, so we are truly fortunate to be able to support the needs of the USG and make these moves with relative ease.”
Spirou joined the GCSU faculty in 2013 as chair of the Department of Government and Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences. In 2015, he moved into the Office of the Provost and served as senior associate provost for Academic Affairs and director of The Graduate School, as well as interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs (2016).
For the past five years in his role as provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, he has contributed to the advancement of the academic mission as GCSU’s chief academic officer. Spirou holds a PhD from Loyola University Chicago.
Roberts arrived at GCSU in 2005 as a limited term instructor in the Department of Teacher Education in the John H. Lounsbury College of Education. Since that time, Roberts earned tenure and rank as a professor of elementary education and served in several leadership roles within the College of Education as the director of assessment & accreditation, interim chair of the Department of Teacher Education, and interim associate dean.
In 2020, Roberts joined the Office of the Provost as the interim associate provost for Academic Affairs and director of The Graduate School and in January 2022, she was selected to serve permanently in the role of the associate provost for Academic Affairs and director of The Graduate School. Since joining the Office of the Provost, Dr.
Roberts has led several key initiatives and has co-led the development of the University’s Strategic Plan, Imagine 2030.
Roberts holds an Ed.D. from Georgia Southern University.
Jarriel joined the GCSU faculty in 2006 as a limited term lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology in the College of Health Sciences.
Jarriel earned tenure and rank as a professor of athletic training and served in several leadership and programmatic roles within the School of Health and Human Performance including assistant director of the school, program director of Athletic Training, and clinical education coordinator of Athletic Training. In 2018, Jarriel led the change in the level of degree for the MSAT, becoming Georgia’s first public accredited master’s program in Athletic Training. She has been awarded both Excellence in Teaching and Service Awards at the school and university levels. She earned Outstanding Original Research Manuscript Awards in 2016 and 2021 from the Athletic Training Education Journal for her collaborative and seminal work in Standardized Patient Education within Athletic Training.
Most recently, Jarriel participated in several key initiatives including GCSU’s 2022 Academic Innovation Taskforce and co-chairs the Women’s Leadership Faculty Fellows Program. Jarriel holds a PhD from the University of Georgia.
- Contributed