Dr. Heather Knight, currently the associate provost for faculty development, diversity and special programs at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, will become Andrews University's provost in mid-August, Andrews president Neils-Erik Andr
Dr. Heather Knight, currently the associate provost for faculty development, diversity and special programs at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, will become Andrews University’s provost in mid-August, Andrews president Neils-Erik Andreasen said.
The position of provost was created on March 30 by the board of trustees and is equivalent to a chief operating officer for a business. In announcing the move, Andrews trustees said “the revised administrative structure will assist in achieving the mission and financial goals of Andrews University and will permit the president more time to focus on the global role of Andrews University and its relationship to its external constituencies,” according to a statement.
“I believe that the future of Andrews University and higher education in general is bright, and the collaboration and possibilities that Dr. Knight will bring to our work here will be significant,” Andreasen, Andrews University president since 1994, said in a statement released by the Seventh-day Adventist Church-owned school.
Knight joins Andrews University with rich experience in teaching and administration at the University of the Pacific, where she has served since 1988, starting as a professor. She then served as an assistant provost, and became associate provost in 1997. She graduated with a Ph.D. in English from Stanford University in 1991, specializing in African American Literature; a masters in English from Loma Linda University in 1984; and a bachelors in English from Oakwood College in 1982.
One of Knight’s major achievements at the University of the Pacific was leading a diversity program to increase minority representation in the school’s faculty. The effort, begun in 1997, increased the number of minority faculty from 10 percent to 19 percent, well surpassing the United States’ national average of 13 percent.
“Heather Knight will bring to the campus a broad range of experience from her previous work as an associate provost at the University of the Pacific and a rich background of denominational understanding as the wife of a pastor,” said Pastor Gerry Karst, chairman of the Andrews University board of trustees and a general vice president of the Adventist world church. “She expresses a strong commitment to Seventh-day Adventist education, its philosophy and mission. It is a pleasure to welcome her to the leadership team.”
Knight, a native of Jamaica, was raised in the New York City borough of the Bronx, and attended the Grand Concourse Seventh-day Adventist Church. After two years of study at Howard University in Washington, D.C., she transferred to Oakwood, where she said she received a “wonderful grounding in Adventist education and spirituality.”
Her exposure to Adventist education continued at Loma Linda University, where, she said in a telephone interview with Adventist News Network, she became inspired to pursue an academic career. At Stanford, she found a role model in then-provost Dr. Condoleeza Rice, now the United States Secretary of State, who was the first female African-American provost at the school.
At Andrews, Knight said, “part of the provost’s role is to articulate the compelling academic and spiritual role for the institution and then embody it.”
As for her task supporting the work of Dr. Andreasen, who represents the university to the world and is a frequent traveler: she said her job would be to “keep the strategic plan actualized while the president is away.”
Knight’s husband, Dr. Norman Knight, is also an educator as well as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, leading the Rainbow Seventh-day Adventist Church in San Francisco while working as a regional coordinator for the University of California’s office of the President. She said her husband hopes to pastor a congregation in the Adventist Church’s Lake Region where Andrews University is located.
“Because I have had experience outside of Adventist higher education and within, I want to combine the best principles” in her new job, Knight said. She also wants to “showcase to the world what Seventh-day Adventist education has to offer.”
Knight said, “There’s so much going on at ... Andrews ... [that we can] package and showcase to a larger Adventist higher education market, and to higher education in general, so we can become a national model.”
From its founding in 1874, Andrews University has emphasized scholarship, quality research and a strong focus on practical Christianity. Its campus is also home to the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, a premiere training center for church pastors and leaders.