Downs Currently Serves as Dean at East Carolina University
 
Contact: Jackie Bridges, Gardner-Webb University - Office of Communications & Media Relations, 704-406-2542

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C., Feb. 14, 2019 /Standard Newswire/ -- The Gardner-Webb University Board of Trustees unanimously confirmed Dr. William M. Downs as the institution's 13th president. He currently serves at East Carolina University (ECU) as the dean of the Thomas Harriot College of Arts & Sciences in Greenville, N.C. His term as GWU president begins July 1.
 
The Gardner-Webb Presidential Search Committee engaged in a highly competitive year-long national search for the new leader. According to David Royster III, GWU Board of Trustees member and chairman of the Presidential Search Committee, the new president has significant leadership experience and understands higher education on multiple levels. "He has served as a faculty member, department chair, program director and dean," Royster noted. "The Board of Trustees has faith that Gardner-Webb will thrive and continue to provide transformative opportunities for students under his guidance."
 
With over two decades of service in higher education, Downs has been at ECU since 2014. He is the W. Keats Sparrow Distinguished Chair in the Liberal Arts and a professor of political science. He administers 16 academic departments and 17 interdisciplinary degree programs in the College of Arts & Sciences. Downs also ensures the quality of general education curriculum for more than 23,000 undergraduate students, and along with colleagues, he has introduced several initiatives to improve undergraduate research and international study opportunities.

"I am truly honored by the privilege and opportunity of serving as Gardner-Webb University's next president" Downs said. "So many things have attracted me and brought me to this moment...GWU's mission and underlying values, its people and programs, and its rich traditions of excellence.  Together, we will have the chance to write a new chapter in the history of one of North Carolina's great universities.  I cannot wait to get started."
 
Downs, his wife and children are lifelong followers of the Christian faith. "Kim and I actually met in fourth grade in a Raleigh Sunday School class, and we have been partners in our spiritual journey ever since," Downs said. "That journey has shaped who I am as an educator, as a husband/father, and as a member of my community. I fully embrace Gardner-Webb's commitment to providing rigorous academic programs in a compassionate Christian environment, and I look forward to celebrating the University's Baptist heritage. My family is eager to find a new church home in the Boiling Springs/Shelby area."
 
From 1997 to 2014, Downs served various roles at Georgia State University (Atlanta), including area dean, department chair, director and professor. He is an accomplished lecturer, research scholar and author. He has been a research fellow at Harvard University's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, a graduate research associate at the Carter Center's African Governance Program and a Fulbright Research Fellow in Belgium.

A Raleigh native, Downs earned his Bachelor of Arts in political science (with a minor in journalism) from North Carolina State University (Raleigh) in 1988, and his Master of Arts ('90) and Doctoral ('94) degrees in political science from Emory University (Atlanta).

Located in the North Carolina foothills, Gardner-Webb University is a private, Christian, liberal arts university with 3,600 students from 39 states and 19 foreign countries.