VSU names new provost
Jeremy M. Lazarus | 6/22/2016, 2:47 p.m.
Virginia State University President Makola M. Abdullah has found the person he wants to lead academic affairs at the Ettrick campus.
His choice is Dr. Donald E. Palm, currently associate provost for undergraduate education at Florida A&M University, where Dr. Abdullah previously worked for 15 years.
Dr. Palm, who also is a professor in the College of Pharmacy at FAMU, will succeed Dr. W. Weldon Hill as VSU’s provost and vice president of academic affairs.
He is to start Aug. 1.
Dr. Palm will bring “more than two decades of experience in higher education,” Dr. Abdullah stated in announcing the appointment last week.
Dr. Palm has spent his career at Florida A&M as a professor and administrator, according to Dr. Abdullah. During his tenure, Dr. Palm has won awards for teaching and authored numerous research papers in the field of neuroscience.
A Pittsburgh native, Dr. Palm earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from Lincoln University and a doctorate in pharmacology from Pennsylvania State University’s Hershey Medical School.
He also was involved in post-doctoral research at Brown University on traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Abdullah served as a dean at FAMU, and was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Florida Memorial University and as provost and senior vice president at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla., before coming to VSU.
