OXFORD, Ga. — Oxford College's dean Douglas Hicks was named the president of Davidson College in North Carolina today, April 29.

Davidson trustees today, April 29, unanimously named Hicks as the college’s 19th president. He begins work Aug. 1.

Hicks, 54, has served as dean of Oxford College of Emory University since 2016. He will continue to serve as Oxford’s dean through July. 

Ravi V. Bellamkonda, Emory’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, will name an interim dean in the coming weeks following consultation with faculty and other stakeholders, after which a national search will commence for the next dean of Oxford College.

Hicks is returning to his alma mater, having earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Davidson before earning a Master of Divinity degree from Duke University and his master's and doctorate in religion from Harvard University. 

“It has been an honor to be part of the Oxford and Emory communities for the last six years,” Hicks said in a news release from Emory. 

“I am proud that Oxford's outstanding faculty and staff have worked together to deliver an extraordinary liberal arts education to our diverse and highly talented students. I know that they are not only prepared to excel in their studies in Atlanta, but also to grow into leaders who will serve their communities far beyond college.”

Emory President Gregory L. Fenves said, “Dean Hicks elevated Oxford College in its mission to educate and transform lives.

“He made Emory's founding campus into a destination for students from across the nation and around the world seeking a unique liberal arts education and college experience. I am grateful for all he has done for our university and wish him the best as he moves on to lead the Davidson community.”

Oxford College is located on Emory's original 1836 campus in Oxford. With an emphasis on a residential, liberal arts experience, it offers a distinctive, small-campus setting that allows first- and second-year students to thrive both academically and personally before continuing to Emory’s Atlanta campus to complete their bachelor’s degrees through Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Goizueta Business School or Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.

Hicks has been instrumental in advancing Oxford across many dimensions, focusing on academic excellence, leadership education, diversity and investment in financial aid, infrastructure and faculty and staff. 

Bellamkonda said, “Doug Hicks has been a transformational dean for Oxford College, helping to realize its exceptional potential as a leader in undergraduate education."

“While Oxford is known as Emory’s birthplace, it’s also a vital part of Emory’s future, especially as we focus on providing an unparalleled experience for undergraduates through our Student Flourishing initiative,” Bellamkonda said. “We’re excited about what’s ahead for Oxford as we continue to build on what’s been achieved under Doug’s leadership.”

As part of Oxford’s strategic plan, Hicks led the creation of a distinctive new general-education curriculum, including Discovery Seminars, experiential learning and a Milestone Project for every student, while increasing the number of advanced classes and adding new areas of study. Thanks in part to these efforts, applications to Oxford have more than doubled over the past six years to over 20,000 in 2022, contributing to record diversity and academic strengths among enrolled students.

The Oxford campus has also seen signficant physical and philanthropic expansion during Hicks’ tenure, including the addition of a new dining hall and student center and renovations of the historic Phi Gamma, Pierce and Humanities buildings. Meanwhile, Oxford’s endowment has nearly doubled since 2016 and the college has already surpassed $70 million raised toward its $80 million 2O36 Campaign goal, enabling new investments in financial aid and the student experience.

Hicks has also strengthened ties with Emory’s Atlanta campus to ensure students’ smooth transition and to foster student flourishing, including strengthening post-graduation career opportunities through the Mellon Humanities Pathways Program. In addition, he has helped lead Emory’s work to memorialize the labor of enslaved persons as co-chair of the university’s Twin Memorials Working Group.

A news release from Davidson stated that Oxford’s parallels to Davidson, founded one year apart, range from the symbolic, such as historic debate society buildings that face each other at the center of campus, to meeting tough, contemporary challenges for higher education. 

It stated Hicks is a co-leader for all of Emory in memorializing the enslaved people whose labor helped build the Oxford campus, a project that parallels Davidson’s efforts toward a similar commemoration. 

He doubled the diversity of Oxford’s faculty and leads a student body that is more than two-thirds domestic students of color or international students. 

He secured the first naming of an Emory University academic building after a Black leader, the late Newton County Superior Court Judge Horace Johnson Jr., a friend and mentor. Those endeavors are rooted in the scholarship and work Hicks has done in the distinctive combination of religion and economics. 

Hicks has written or edited nine books as well as articles for scholarly and public audiences. His teaching, in leadership studies and religion, began at the University of Richmond, where he later served as founding director of the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement. 

He moved to Colgate University to serve as provost and dean of the faculty, the university’s chief academic officer, before accepting the role of dean at Oxford in 2016.

Teresa Rivero, lead senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and an Emory trustee, said, “Doug is a leader who brings a range of voices around the table who represent the community around us, not just demographically, but in thought, in political ideology, to just how we think about the world.

“It takes a nuanced leader to be comfortable in that messiness. He will step into that role and be a leader, not just for the Davidson community. He will have an impact on how higher ed institutions model this for the rest of the country.”Hicks succeeds Carol Quillen, who announced in August that she is stepping down after 11 years as president.

Alison Hall Mauzé, chair of Davidson’s board of trustees, said Hicks brings an extraordinary combination of experience and skills to this moment in Davidson’s history.

“Doug learned and led at some of our nation’s top liberal arts colleges,” Mauzé said. 

“He began his teaching at one of the country’s first leadership schools and led the faculty at a prestigious university. As the dean of Oxford College, at Emory, he has strengthened the sense of community and propelled initiatives that are in sync with Davidson’s priorities and collaborative work, including reckoning with historical ties to enslavement and creating new approaches to preparing students for careers in a complex and changing world. 

"He understands where we are now and has charted a path ahead.”

Hicks will be joined on campus by his spouse, Catherine Bagwell, a professor of psychology specializing in child and adolescent development, as well as their son, Noah, who starts in the fall at the California Institute of Technology, and daughter, Ada, who will begin her sophomore year of high school in August.

Davidson muscled up its Matthews Center for Career Development in recent years, expanding the resources and opportunities to secure internships and other experiences that build more technical skills that employers need on day one. The college also opened, in the town of Davidson, the Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a nexus of local businesses and Davidson students and faculty working together on business ideas and startups.

Along a similar timeline, Hicks secured a Mellon Foundation grant to fund Emory’s “Humanities Pathways” program, which he co-leads. Faculty complete workshops and redevelop courses around the idea of helping humanities students experience a variety of career paths, often with help from alums in those fields.

“This program shows and connects students to the myriad career possibilities with a liberal arts degree, from business and science to finance or health care,” said Erika James, dean of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and former dean of Emory’s Goizueta Business School. “Doug has a clear vision for preparing students for leadership and recognizes the importance of both the liberal arts’ depth and the value of experiential learning.”