An honoree to be recognized March 14 is Dolores Spikes, currently the president of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Spikes has not only achieved notoriety in the field of education, but she is also responsible for several historic firsts for both women and blacks.
In 1971 she was the first graduate, as well as the first black, from Southern University to receive a doctorate of mathematics from Louisiana State University.
Spikes is noted for her established teaching career. From 1958 to 1961, she served as a biology, chemistry and science teacher at Mossville High School in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana.
In 1961 she became assistant professor of mathematics at Southern University, soon followed by associate professor then ultimately full professor.
She is also the first woman in Louisiana named as chief officer of a public university as well as the first woman in the United States to be the head of a university system.
Spikes has served such positions as chancellor of both Southern University-Baton Rouge and Southern University-New Orleans. It was these positions which led to her presidency over the Southern University System.
Her organizational memberships include the Board of Directors of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education and the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. These positions highlight her support of the progression of higher student education.
Awards received by Spikes throughout her career include the Thurgood Marshal Education Achievement Award and the 1890 Colleges and Universities Distinguished Alumnus Award.
She was also named one of “The Most Influential Black Women in America” in the January, 1990 issue of Ebony Magazine.
Some of her community activities include serving on the Boards of Directors of the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce and Louisiana Red Cross, as well as being one of the founders of the Louisiana Partnership for Technology and Innovation.
Spikes is the current president at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shores. She acquired this position in 1988, following positions as vice chancellor of academic affairs for Southern University-Baton Rouge and chancellor for Southern University-New Orleans.
Spike will undoubtedly be remembered not only as exceptional examples of female success in America, but as examples of human achievement, past all barriers of gender and race that may still exist today.
