The provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith has been named a semifinalist for the president of McNeese State University.
Shadow JQ Robinson, provost at UA-Fort Smith since July 1, 2022, is among four semifinalists selected by the McNeese State University presidential search committee, according to a news release from the University of Louisiana System.
The committee will interview the semifinalists April 16-17, and the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System will select the next president on April 25, according to the news release.
Besides Robinson, 48, the semifinalists are Andy Benoit Jr., vice president of enrollment management, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi; Wade Rousse, executive vice president, McNeese State University; and Allen Vital, chief of staff, office of the president, Southern University System.
Robinson came to UA-Fort Smith from the University of Tennessee at Martin, where he was dean of the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences from 2018 to 2022.
According to a university biography, Robinson was born and raised in rural eastern Kentucky and began his academic career at 14, taking classes in the physics and mathematics departments at the University of Kentucky. He enrolled there full-time at age 16, earning bachelor's degrees with honors in physics and mathematics in 1997. He completed his doctorate in theoretical nuclear physics at Rutgers University in 2002.