McCray Elected Chair of College Board Southwestern Regional Council

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Suzanne McCray

Suzanne McCray, University of Arkansas vice provost for enrollment and the dean of admissions, was recently elected chair of the College Board Southwestern Regional Council. She is also an associate professor of higher education in the College of Education and Health Professions.

The 23-member council consists of higher education, secondary education, and College Board officials representing four states: Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The council organizes a Southwestern Regional Forum each year, attracting more than 500 participants. Responsibilities include serving an additional three-year term first as chair elect, then chair, and finally as immediate past chair. The chair represents the Southwestern Regional Council at the College Board National Forum as well. McCray also serves on the College Board Advanced Placement Higher Education Advisory Committee.

McCray's professional career at the U of A began with the Honors Studies Program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. In 2002, with the creation of the Honors College, she became its associate dean, and she served as the interim dean in 2008-2009. As the director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards, she has advised hundreds of students concerning scholarship and graduate school applications. For three years, she served on the national program review committee for the Coca-Cola Scholarship, and she is currently completing a third term on the national selection committee for the Morris Udall Scholarship and her second on the Critical Language Scholarship review.

She has been an active member of the National Association of Fellowships Advisors as well, serving as its president from 2003-2005.

In 2005 she edited Beyond Winning: National Scholarship Competitions and the Student Experience, a collection of essays written by foundation heads and scholarship advisors. That collection has been followed by four additional volumes: Nationally Competitive Scholarships: Serving Students and the Public Good and Leading the Way: Student Engagement and Nationally Competitive Awards (2007), Leading the Way: Students Engagement and Nationally Competitive Awards (2009), All in: Expanding Access Through Nationally Competitive Awards (2013), All Before Them: Student Opportunities and Nationally Competitive Fellowships (2015).

She holds bachelor's (high honors) and master's degrees in English from the University of Arkansas and a doctorate in English from the University of Tennessee.