Prof Margee Ensign appointed USIU vice-chancellor as Freida Brown exits
Professor Margee Ensign, the incoming vice-chancellor of USIU-Africa.
The United States International University-Africa (USIU-A) has appointed Prof Margee Ensign to be the new vice-chancellor. According to an announcement made Monday by university council chairperson Kris Ole-Senanu, Prof Ensign will take over management of the university from Prof Freida Brown on September 1, 2022.
Prof Brown came out of retirement in August 2021 to serve as interim VC following the exit of Prof Paul Tiyambe Zeleza whose five-year term expired in December the same year.
Prof Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, USIU-Africa's former vice-chancellor.
Prof Freida Brown, who went back to USIU as interim vice-chancellor.
Prof Ensign is currently serving her second stint as the president of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, where she first served as president from 2010 to 2017. Between 2017 and 2021, she was the VC of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania in the US before returning to AUN.
"The university council is confident that Prof Ensign's experience leading two very different organisations as vice chancellor will enable her to address the challenges and opportunities for USIU-Africa," Mr Ole-Senanu said.
"She brings an undoubted commitment, passion and vision around deepening international and intercultural education in Africa: it has been at the heart of her teaching, research, publications, and administrative life, and has led her to experience working in numerous international environments."
Prof Ensign was associate provost for International Initiatives, dean and professor, School of International Studies, University of The Pacific (1999-2010) and also has worked in Rwanda and Uganda (2003 to 2009), and held administrative and faculty positions at Columbia and Tulane universities.
The incoming VC, who holds a PhD in International Politics and Economics from the University of Maryland, said that she is looking forward to the USIU-A tour of duty.
She is the co-author and co-editor of six books, including Rwanda: History and Hope and Confronting Genocide: Dehumanization, Denial, and Strategies for Prevention.
"Building a sense of common purpose and a shared vision, both within the institution and in conjunction with its host community, is high on my agenda," she said.
"One of the most rewarding parts of my academic leadership jobs in the US and Nigeria focussed on social responsibility or 'civic learning and action', which are my key values and high priorities. At AUN, my mission was to create a ‘development university’ in line with USIU-Africa's focus on community and sustainable development."
USIU is one of the leading private universities in Kenya. It is the only university in the region with dual accreditation in Kenya by the Commission for University Education and in the US by WASC Senior College and University Commission.
