Dr. Shantay Bolton, Tulane University’s vice president and deputy chief operating officer, will join the Washington University community as executive vice chancellor for administration and chief administrative officer, Jul. 1.

Courtesy of The Source

Bolton will succeed Henry S. Webber, who held the position since 2008, but was named Washington University’s first executive vice chancellor for civic affairs and strategic planning in August. After this announcement, a search committee composed of eight faculty members and administrators spent the fall identifying the top candidates to replace Webber.

At Tulane, Bolton oversaw business operations, human resources, leadership development, employee engagement and more. As the founder of Tulane’s Leadership Institute, Bolton sought to diversify the University’s management by nurturing and training future leaders. She also oversaw a major departmental merger, led Tulane’s “return to work plan” for COVID-19 and took on a number of other responsibilities during her four years at the University.

Civic engagement has also been a major priority for Bolton, who serves on the New Orleans workforce development board. As a faculty member of the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education’s (AABHE) Leadership Mentoring Institute, she has also helped Black professionals develop the necessary skills to work in senior management positions. As a result of this work, the New Orleans newspaper The Gambit named her one of its “40 under 40 overachievers and do-gooders” in 2019.

According to Bolton, her commitment to engaging with the New Orleans community during her time at Tulane lines up with Chancellor Andrew Martin’s mantra that Washington University is “in St. Louis and for St. Louis.”

“It is with great humility and genuine enthusiasm that I accept the vote of confidence entrusted in me by Chancellor Martin and the Wash. U. community to lead the administrative operations of such a globally prestigious institution,” Bolton wrote in a statement. “No matter what awaits us in the journey ahead, I am beyond confident that we can find success together, In St. Louis, For St. Louis!”

Bolton’s academic qualifications include both a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Alabama A&M University, as well as a doctorate in organizational psychology with a concentration in industrial psychology from Walden University and an MBA from Florida International University. She is also a St. Louis native and a graduate of Vashon High School.