About the Chancellor

The University of North Carolina Board of Governors elected Dr. Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. as the eleventh chancellor of UNC Greensboro (UNCG) on May 22, 2015. Chancellor Gilliam brings to UNCG and the UNC system a wealth of experience from a career that spans more than 35 years in higher education. He took office on September 8, 2015. 

During his tenure, UNCG has significantly grown its endowment, research enterprise, student success outcomes, and overall facilities and campus infrastructure; increased its fundraising to record levels; and substantially elevated the presence, reputation, and real-world impact of the largest university in the North Carolina Triad region. Since Gilliam’s arrival, the University has consistently garnered national recognition for its commitment and innovative approaches to integrated student success and has been named number one in North Carolina, and top-ranked nationally, by national publications for social mobility on an annual basis since 2019.  

Prior to this appointment, Gilliam served as dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, where he shepherded a $50 million naming gift. While at UCLA, Gilliam launched and executed an ambitious strategic plan and capital campaign and was a longtime UCLA professor of public policy and political science. His research focused on strategic communications, public policy, electoral politics, and racial and ethnic politics. 

VISIONARY AND CIVIC LEADER

Gilliam has not only led UNCG’s growth, but he has also helped build a solid foundation for a very bright future at the University. In his first year at UNCG, Gilliam worked with board members and key leaders to assure UNCG’s inclusion on the Connect NC bond referendum, passed by voters, securing $105 million in funding for a new nursing and STEM building which opened in January 2021. He worked with campus leaders to secure a transformative gift from community leader and philanthropist Tobee Kaplan, who, at that time, made one of the largest gifts in UNCG history to name the Leonard J. Kaplan Center for Wellness.  

Gilliam also led the effort to secure Millennial Campus designation from the UNC System Board of Governors, creating the conditions that will drive growth in areas like health and wellness and the creative and performing arts for years to come on campus and in the broader community. He worked with alumna and community leader Jeanne Tannenbaum to secure a gift to establish the Jeanne Tannenbaum Center for Creative Practice. Currently under construction, the center will foster creativity and academic and technological innovation across disciplines and serve as the landmark anchor of the Tate Street Arts and Culture District within the Millennial Campus. 

Gilliam is spearheading innovative and transformative initiatives that will elevate UNCG’s position in the future. He has successfully led the University’s ambitious fundraising effort, Light the Way: The Campaign for Earned Achievement. Launched in October 2021, the campaign has far surpassed a $200 million goal aimed at strengthening three key areas: access, excellence, and impact, with particular emphasis on student scholarships and investments in world-class faculty and academic pursuits.

Under Gilliam’s leadership, the University has established multiple innovative programs with support from governmental, private, and corporate partners. In 2021, the University became the first in the UNC System to launch a comprehensive esports initiative. Focused on academics and research, the program is enhancing educational outcomes for North Carolina students while providing an end-to-end talent development pipeline for North Carolina industry, positioning the state as the nation’s leading esports economy with UNCG at the academic helm. In 2025, UNCG was selected as one of only 36 universities in the country, and one of just three in North Carolina, for an Unreal Academic Partnership by Cary-based Epic Games, makers of the Unreal Engine 3D computer graphics and Fortnite, one of the world’s most popular video games. This partnership is recognition of UNCG’s expertise and capacity with the technology and its integration into curriculum and research. 

Since performance metrics were instituted by the UNC System, UNCG has consistently met or exceeded its goals (including graduation rates and degree efficiency). In the most recent year, UNCG was the best performing school in the 17-campus UNC System, meaning that the University’s students are finding greater success and graduating with less debt. 

Gilliam is a senior fellow with the FrameWorks Institute (winner of the 2015 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions), where he has contributed to research and training on health care, racial equity, early child development, youth and rural issues, and criminal justice. At the national level, Gilliam has served as chair of the NCAA Division I Presidential Forum (2018), as a member of the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities’ Council of Presidents, and on the Executive Committee of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. He is former chair of the Southern Conference Council of Presidents and previously served on the North Carolina Campus Compact Executive Board. Gilliam currently serves on the boards of RTI International, Union Square Campus, Gateway University Research Park, Piedmont Triad Partnership, Greensboro Sports Foundation, and the FrameWorks Institute (US and UK).  

AWARD-WINNING EDUCATOR

Prior to his appointment as dean at UCLA, Gilliam served as the inaugural associate vice chancellor of community partnerships in the University of California system from 2002 to 2008. As associate vice chancellor, he championed UCLA’s civic engagement by supporting engaged scholarship and community collaborations to improve the quality of life for residents of Los Angeles.

Gilliam is the author of Farther to Go: Readings and Cases in African-American Politics (Harcourt Brace), and his work has been published in many leading academic journals. He is frequently interviewed or cited by national and international news outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, The Huffington Post, and the BBC.

Gilliam was honored by UCLA in 2021 with a $2 million endowed professorship in his name and by the Liberty Hill Foundation in 2015 with the Upton Sinclair Award for his renowned work advancing civic engagement and commitment to issues of equity. Twice nominated for UCLA’s Luckman Distinguished Teaching Award, he has also taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Grinnell College, and the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and was a visiting scholar at Brandeis University. In addition, he taught at Columbia University, Fisk University, and—with former Vice President Al Gore—at Middle Tennessee State University. Triad Business Journal has named Gilliam as one of the region’s Most Admired CEOs—a group of top executives recognized for exceptional leadership in business and for their philanthropic endeavors—and as one of the region’s Power Players, leaders who champion efforts that dynamically change the region’s trajectory. 

Gilliam received his B.A. from Drake University and his M.A. and PhD in political science from the University of Iowa. He has been married for 33 years to Jacquelean (Jacquie) Gilliam, who previously served as the executive director of scholarships and student support initiatives and campus-wide initiatives at UCLA and is now a philanthropic consultant and active community volunteer and leader. They are parents to Ariel Gilliam and Franklin D. (Trey) Gilliam III.