The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has hired George R. Cotton Sr. as vice chancellor for institutional advancement and development.
Cotton, 61, who is originally from Phillips County in east Arkansas, has been senior vice president of development for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.
He has spent most of his career in various fundraising jobs at public and private universities.
Before he joined the Wright museum, Cotton was the vice president of university advancement and executive director of the foundation at Florida A&M University, a public, historically black university in Tallahassee, Fla.; assistant vice president for major gifts at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, which is affiliated with Wake Forest University, a private university in Winston-Salem, N.C.; director of development and alumni affairs for the College of Science at George Mason University, a public research university in Fairfax, Va., outside Washington D.C.; and associate director of institutional advancement at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill.
UAPB Chancellor Laurence B. Alexander said Cotton's experience will be an asset.
"Mr. Cotton brings a wealth of relevant higher education experience to the leadership role in advancement and development at UAPB," Alexander said in a statement. "As a result, he will be able to hit the ground running, building on the history of development, strengthening ties with alumni and other stakeholders and donors, and providing leadership for the various functions of the division, including development, marketing, communications, publications, and the Economic Research and Development Center."
Cotton, who received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, will earn $150,000 a year at UAPB, Alexander said in an email.
State Desk on 07/10/2019