Dr. Martin Lemelle Jr., the 11th president of Grambling State University (GSU), represents something remarkable in higher education leadership. At one of the youngest ages to hold such a position at an HBCU, he’s blazing new trails while honoring deep roots. The third-generation Grambling graduate has turned fiscal challenges into opportunities, improving the university’s financial health by an impressive 200%.
Under his leadership, students now travel globally through innovative programs, while partnerships with major brands like Adidas bring fresh energy to campus life. As Grambling approaches its 125th anniversary, Dr. Lemelle is positioning the institution where “everybody is somebody” for a future that honors its past while embracing endless possibilities.
What does continuing your family’s Grambling legacy mean to you personally and professionally?
For me, it’s a badge of honor to be able to carry the baton forward. Each generation has a responsibility to both honor the past and the history, the foundation. We just celebrated Founders Day. Our founder, Charles P. Adams, came to Grambling State University in 1901 under the urgency and urging of Booker T. Washington from Tuskegee.
So now I have that baton going forward to be able to celebrate student success, partner with industry to ensure that we’re able to navigate the landscape of artificial intelligence, and ensure that there’s a continual seat at the table for HBCU students.
You’ve improved GSU’s fiscal health by 200%. What strategies guided this success?
It starts with predictive analytics, understanding exactly the North Star for your institution. Community engagement, understanding the business of higher education, but bringing faculty, students, and administrators along that process. Then being very disciplined, knowing when to say yes to the right projects, having the foresight and the determination to make difficult decisions about things that no longer fit the enterprise model, but being very thoughtful about how you approach each and every decision.
We are thankful that we’ve continued to find ways to grow revenue and also diversify revenue, with more revenue coming from outside of the institution, whether that’s state or federal funding or the private environment. But also making sure that when we do make investments, that they’re strategic investments, and that we can scale our organization in a way that’s efficient and positioned for growth.
How do you prepare today’s students to compete in a global economy?
It starts for me with authenticity, students bringing their unique value proposition to every conversation. And so we lean in as a place of belonging and access and impact, so that our students can be multi-hyphenate. They understand the world of STEM, but they also are at the intersection of art and design.
They’re excellent communicators, but they’re also strategists, and so we’re preparing students to graduate from Grambling State University with a degree of their choice, but also have stackable credentials, have experiential learning, have opportunities to travel the globe, and Grambling State University will continue to position students for excellence in that way.
Can you tell us about the Global and Experiential Education Endowment?
It was inspired from, as James Baldwin said when he traveled often, when I traveled, I discovered a lot of things I even found myself. This opportunity for students to be connected to what we like to call GLOCAL, so rooted in your community, understanding exactly who you are, but also connected to the broader societal context.
We’ve got students like Michael Dozier, who just went on a trip to Paris with the Reginald F. Lewis Scholars, who’s coming back now, bringing that knowledge around how do you think about business in a global economy? How do you think about education in a European versus American society? And so we want our students to have continual exposure, and that’s part of the premise for the endowment. But it’s also ensuring that as we become more diverse, that our students have opportunities for these high-brand moments.
That includes students from our Earl Lester Cole Honors College who are gonna go to New York City, and you can’t go to New York City without taking in a Broadway show. That program will also access opportunities like that for students. Students who are going to conferences like the National Association of Black Accountants, the National Society of Black Engineers, Afrotech, and other high-touch moments where our students can share their story and communicate their value.
What do partnerships like the one with adidas mean for the university?
We are so thankful for our partners, like adidas, who help us fuel the story of Grambling State University athletics. That’s the beginning of the partnership, but they’ve extended that to our world-famed Tiger Marching Band, ensuring that they have opportunities for engagement. We had a fabulous opportunity with Beyoncé and Ivy Park through adidas to be able to bring the musical talent to a private engagement, but also expose our students to the world of designing shoes.
We are continuously dropping about 2-3 custom shoes each year with adidas that directly support Grambling State University. When you purchase those tennis shoes, yes, you’re flying, you’ve got the best shoes on your feet, but you’re also powering scholarships and the next generation of leaders here at Grambling State University. So we’re very thankful, and we continue to experience new elements of success through those types of partnerships.
How do events like the Bayou Classic contribute to student and alumni engagement?
I’m excited for Bayou Classic. It’s officially November, and we’re starting to hit that Thanksgiving buzz and Bayou Classic buzz. I just did an Instagram this or that with JessLyn Sanders. She’s one of our Bayou Classic influencers this year, and so we’re excited. You can get your tickets for Bayou Classic at mybayouclassic.com. On Friday night, powered by adidas, we have the GSU Kicksball, and you get those tickets at gsukicksball.com.
We have SWV performing, and all of the proceeds from that evening go towards our GAP Scholarship. And that’s for students who are trying to complete their semester registration process and need just that extra bit of financing to ensure that we power their social and economic mobility. We want our students to graduate with a career of their choice, but also to minimize their debt. It’s a party with a purpose, it’s in New Orleans at the Hilton Riverside. Thank you so much to everyone who supported us in the years past, but you do not want to miss this year.
What are you most excited about for GSU’s 125th anniversary?
It’s a trifecta, so we will celebrate 125 years of the university, but also 100 years of our athletic tradition and our band tradition. Wherever you are across the globe, we want to celebrate with you in the spirit of Gram Fam. We want to celebrate our scholars and engineers. We want to celebrate our alums, like Thomas and Joyce Moorehead.
Thomas Moorehead’s an alum of Grambling State University. He and his wife, Joyce Moorehead, have just endowed with us through a $10 million partnership, the naming for the College of Business, and so now it is the Thomas and Joyce Moorehead College of Business and Entrepreneurship. We have a lot to be thankful for, and even more to celebrate as we reach that milestone of 125 years of excellence through service at Grambling State.
What’s the key to sustaining HBCUs relevance in the modern era?
Being nimble, being very adaptive to change, just as you spoke about in your profession, integrating your skill set. Understanding that the pivot is a part of the process, and when you anticipate that things will shift and change, you’re able to move a little more smoothly. As higher ed professionals, we have to keep that front of mind. We have to think about new innovation while also understanding the elements of culture and tradition, and so it’s a both-and conversation.
We also have to run the race with technology. It’s not man or woman versus machine, it’s us with technology, making sure that we leverage that as an accelerator for our growth and development, and it’s an exciting time to be at an HBCU. We are seeing renewed interest in the vitality of our community is stronger than ever. I’m fortunate that I get to do this work at Grambling State and get to work with the beautiful students here on our campus.
What message do you want to share about legacy, leadership, and community?
Community is powerful. It is our superpower, it’s our strength. When you think about achieving success, the ability to collaborate towards a successful goal is far more powerful than an individual goal. And so when you think through the next great idea you have, don’t gatekeep it all. You’ve got your intellectual property and a lot of things that you want to protect, but inspire the next generation, share the story, amplify the gift.
Together, we will all rise. We will continue to lift as we climb, because as we think about the strength of HBCUs, there were over 300 HBCUs during reconstruction. Today, we stand at just over 100. And so, we are here now carrying that mantle. And it’s up to all of us to ensure that we succeed as a cohort, but also as individuals. And so our students, our faculty, our staff, our alums, we have to continue to be united in this front.
