Anthony Graham

Biography

On July 1, 2023, Dr. Anthony Graham assumed the position of interim Chancellor at Winston-Salem State University. Prior to this position he served as the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Winston-Salem State University. Prior to his position at WSSU, Dr. Graham was a tenured Full Professor and dean of the College of Education at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. A graduate of Kinston High School, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he earned the bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in mathematics in 1997. He obtained the master’s degree in Secondary English Education in 1999 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Curriculum and Teaching with a cognate in Multicultural Education in 2003 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Prior to his work in higher education, Dr. Graham was a high school English teacher.

As a scholar, Dr. Graham leverages Critical Race Theory to examine the academic experiences of African American male students and the construction of their academic and ethnic identities in K-20 educational environments, specifically focusing on effective pedagogies to engage this special population. Using this theoretical framework, Graham explores the sociocultural and sociopolitical experiences of African American male K-12 students and teachers in United States public schools. He has published a variety of book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, and co-authored a book.  In addition, he has served as the managing editor of the historic peer-review academic journal The Negro Educational Review.

Provost Graham has procured grants totaling approximately $25 million. With these funds, he has collaborated with educators and scholars to create initiatives that increase the number of classroom teachers, especially ethnic and racial minority teachers, who enter the teaching profession in under-resourced and hard-to-staff rural and urban schools. These programs include the Central Carolina Innovation Corps (iCorps) Program funded by the National Science Foundation, the Winston-Salem State University Adult Connections and Continuing Education Student Success (ACCESS) Program funded by the Lumina Foundation, North Carolina A&T Rural Teaching Fellows Program funded by the United States Department of Education, the North Carolina A&Teach STEM Scholars Program, funded by the National Science Foundation, the Winston-Salem Teacher Residency and the North Carolina A&T Teacher Residency funded by the United States Department of Education. Additionally, he has created and coordinated numerous initiatives to increase the number of racial and ethnic minority students who matriculate to four-year institutions of higher education. These initiatives include the Brother-2-Brother Mentoring Program, the Lunch with the Kings Program for Elementary Black Boys, the Charles Hamilton Houston Summer Leadership Institute for Adolescent African American Boys, and the Scholarship Search and College Admission Conference for Minority Students.