Denise Jones Gregory assumed the permanent presidency of Jackson State University on May 1 after a year as interim leader, taking the helm of Mississippi’s only public historically Black university at a moment of accumulated institutional strain. Alongside the keys to the office comes a year of executive coaching, funded through a $97,500 contract signed in September between the state’s higher education board and the executive search firm AGB Search. The contract’s public disclosure — obtained by Mississippi Today — has drawn attention as an unusual window into an onboarding process that more often happens behind closed doors.
The coaching arrangement arrives against a backdrop of rapid turnover that has eroded stability at the 148-year-old institution. Gregory is the fourth person to hold the presidency in six years, following Carolyn Meyers, William B. Bynum Jr., and an acting appointment served by Marcus Thompson after Bynum’s arrest and firing in 2020. The churn has left tangible scars: a persistent student housing shortage, strained relationships with graduates wary of the hiring process, and a federal investigation into the university’s doctoral program over claims of discrimination and retaliation.
“It is normal, especially for first-time presidents, to receive executive coaching,” said Alfred Rankins Jr., Mississippi’s commissioner of higher education, whose board oversees the state’s eight public universities. “You want to set as much support around a new president as possible.” Rankins said the coaching is structured to last roughly one year.
The public nature of the coaching line item stands out. Felecia Commodore, an associate professor at Old Dominion University who studies leadership at historically Black colleges and universities, said that while coaching itself is common, the disclosure is not. “Typically it happens in private, so it’s a positive sign that this is public,” Commodore said.
Among alumni, the reaction is cautiously hopeful. Marcus Thompson, president of the Jackson State University National Alumni Association, drew a line between the cost and the potential return. “If it’s not, it’ll be a waste of money,” Thompson said. “If it is, she could be the best president Jackson State has ever seen.”
The university also faces a U.S. Department of Education investigation into its doctoral program, focused on allegations of discrimination and retaliation. Gregory has not publicly commented on the investigation or on how the coaching will be structured.
The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board has not disclosed additional details about the coaching curriculum or the identity of the coach. AGB Search, based in Washington, D.C., has led presidential searches at multiple public universities but has not previously had its coaching arrangements become a matter of public contract.