The American Council on Education (ACE) announced Dr. James A. Wilson, Jr., Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Director of Faculty Innovation and Enhancement (FIE) at Prairie View A&M University, as an ACE Fellow for its 2019-20 program. Thirty-nine Fellows were selected to begin work this fall following nominations by senior administration at each of their institutions and a rigorous application process.

“The ACE Fellows Program epitomizes ACE’s goal of enriching the capacity of leaders to innovate and adapt, and it fuels the expansion of a talented and diverse higher education leadership pipeline,” said ACE President Ted Mitchell. “Each year I am impressed by how many former Fellows are named to prominent leadership roles, which makes it even more exciting to meet each new cohort. I’m left wondering, ‘Where will these Fellows end up?’”

The ACE program combines retreats, interactive learning opportunities, visits to campuses and other higher education-related organizations, and placement at other higher education institutions to condense years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single year. During placements, Fellows observe and work with the president and other senior officers at their host institution, attend decision-making meetings, and focus on issues of interest. Fellows also conduct projects of pressing concern for their home institutions and seek to implement their findings upon completion of the fellowship placement. After the fellowship year, Fellows return to their home institutions with new knowledge and skills that contribute to capacity-building efforts, along with a network of peers across the country and abroad.

“The ACE Fellows program is essential because it has a stellar track record of preparing leaders to take the helm of colleges and universities across the United States. The process of becoming a Fellow is rigorous, and it is designed to identify potential leaders who have been acknowledged for their diligent efforts to make constructive contributions to improve the quality of higher education in the United States as the world continues to become more interconnected globally than ever before. Colleges and universities must be open to the richness of diverse leadership, and the ACE Fellows program creates a network of talented scholars and leaders who will be responsible for the ever-present transformations that will require ethical, responsible, creative, well-informed, and principled leaders,” said Wilson.

Wilson joined the ranks of the Academic Affairs Division at PVAMU in September of 2009 as Director of the Honors Program. As a result of nurturing high academic expectations and performance, 98-percent of the Honors students completed their degrees in four years and entered top-ranked medical, law, and graduate schools. Wilson also established a Confucius Institute on the PVAMU campus in 2014 and launched a partnership with Xi’an International Studies University (XISU) in Xi’an China. Furthermore, he sent PVAMU students to Ghana, South Africa, China, Korea, Taiwan, Costa Rica, France, and Italy.

Established in 1965, the ACE Fellows Program is designed to strengthen institutions and leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing faculty and staff for senior positions in college and university administration through its distinctive and intensive nominator-driven, cohort-based mentorship model. More than 2,000 higher education leaders have participated in the ACE Fellows Program over the past five decades, with more than 80 percent of Fellows have gone on to serve as senior leaders of colleges and universities.

For more information about the ACE Fellows Program, click here.