Photo by Rick Haye/Marshall University.
By Samantha Cart
In celebration of those who have relocated to West Virginia, embraced our beloved state and now help us work toward a brighter future, Talent Transplant recognizes those who have adopted our Mountain Mama as their own.
For Dr. Jerome Gilbert, a 1973 trip to Bartow, WV, set the wheels in motion for his journey from curious Mississippi high school student to president of Marshall University. After being chosen as a delegate to the National Youth Science Camp in West Virginia during his senior year, the Jackson, MS, native spent a month immersed in the mountains of Almost Heaven.
“The state made a big impression on me,” says Gilbert. “After that experience, I felt tied to West Virginia, and I always felt that someday there would be an opportunity to come back. I just didn’t know when it might be.”
The opportunity finally arose in 2015 when Gilbert was contacted by a search firm seeking applicants for the presidency at Marshall. At the time, he was serving as provost of his alma mater, Mississippi State University, where he held a variety of positions between 1988 and 2015. Although more than 40 years had passed since his first encounter with the Mountain State, Gilbert knew this was the opportunity he had been waiting for.
“I felt strongly about coming here,” he says. “I consider West Virginia my adopted state, and I am committed to it. I want to help raise the economic stature and educational opportunities for our students and young people, and I think when you’re in an economically challenged state like Mississippi or West Virginia, you can have a bigger impact.”
Setting the Bar Higher
Gilbert, who holds a bachelor’s degree in biological engineering and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, didn’t waste any time turning his words into actions. Immediately after assuming the presidency in January 2016, he announced a list of goals for his administration, including growing enrollment, enhancing the university’s national image, encouraging
research and promoting economic development. Then he rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
“Since I set those goals, we’ve become even more aggressive in terms of reaching out to students,” he says. “Last fall, I decided to take a high school tour I called ‘The Rest of Your Life Begins at Marshall University.’ I went to more than 40 West Virginia high schools in 15 counties and talked to approximately 5,000 juniors and seniors about coming to Marshall. I wanted them to hear directly from the president that I wanted them as students at Marshall University.”
Gilbert has also worked closely with Marshall’s Office of University Communications on digital recruitment, geofencing and advertising and crafting a message to send out to other universities around the country.
“We created a database of around 300 universities, and we send out information about Marshall to all of them,” he says. “One of the things we have to do as a university is get what we’re doing in front of other administrators, which will allow us to be recognized nationally.”
Addressing Economic Development
Gilbert is also committed to the economic development of Huntington and West Virginia as a whole.
“In a state like West Virginia, universities have a larger role to play than in wealthy states where economic vibrancy is not an issue,” he says. “I put as one of my goals that Marshall would be involved in economic development. We can partner with industries, try to create jobs and position ourselves to be of
assistance to the state.”
To get the ball rolling, Gilbert reached out to several other universities in the southern part of the state to form the Alliance for the Economic Development of Southern West Virginia. The group is made up of two- and four-year colleges pooling their collective talents and resources to attract businesses and promote growth in their region.
“West Virginia’s universities have things to offer companies that want to come here,” says Gilbert. “From the expertise of our faculty to tailored programs for our workforce to help with research and development in terms of ideas a company may have about new products, the alliance allows us to operate in an adjunct or support function to the commerce department, the governor’s office and the state.”
Gilbert also works with West Virginia University and the West Virginia Department of Commerce on West Virginia Forward, an initiative focused on leveraging business and education to help address statewide issues, which he considers to be complementary to the work of the alliance and Marshall University.
“We have to leverage education to attract industry,” he says. “I think our community here in Huntington has gotten its act together in the past couple years. We’ve had challenges with the opioid epidemic, but we’ve gone beyond that now. We’re starting to see an uptick in economic activity. I’m hoping that with initiatives like these and others, we can capitalize on that upswing as a university and a community by attracting more people and more students. I do think brighter days are ahead for the state
and for Huntington, and I’m excited for what the future holds.”
Impacting the Community
When he is not busy running a Division I university, meeting with prospective students or attending economic development meetings, Gilbert can be found serving the Huntington community on a civic level. He is most heavily involved with the Fairfield Alliance, a group working to revitalize the community of Fairfield, which is adjacent to Marshall’s campus.
“Fairfield used to be a very vibrant community up until about the 1970s,” he says. “There were a lot of businesses in predominantly black communities like this that were duplicating services offered in white communities—grocery stores, law offices, you name it. With integration, the need for those businesses was not as great, and, as a result, a lot of those supports and jobs have gone away.”
While the community has lost a lot of infrastructure in terms of business, the Fairfield Alliance is looking at ways to reinfuse it with opportunity. One of the most exciting gains the group has made came in June with the groundbreaking of a new facility for Marshall University’s pharmacy school, which will be located in Fairfield near Cabell Huntington Hospital.
Finding a Home in West Virginia
Gilbert has set the bar high for university presidents and West Virginians, making his home here without hesitation and working hard to make the Mountain State a better—and more inclusive—place to live. One of the things he is most passionate about is making Marshall University a place where students feel welcome. As part of this commitment, Gilbert helped create the President’s Commission on Diversity, Equality and Inclusion and the President’s Commission on Women with the goal of diversifying the campus and exposing students to a more varied population.
“My favorite thing about my job is the opportunity to impact students’ lives—it’s why I’m still in higher education,” he says. “We have the opportunity to not only prepare students for a career but see them grow and mature. West Virginia is a very homogenous state, and it’s important as an institution of higher learning that we give students the opportunity to interact with a lot of different people so they get a sense of what is out in the world and what the global society looks like. It’s important for our students to get to know each other on a one-on-one basis so they can see they have more commonalities than differences. You learn that by knowing someone on a personal level.”
Gilbert has truly hit the ground running in his short time at Marshall University. Like most who come to West Virginia, he feels the pull of the Mountain State.
“There is a really strong draw here to the place and the land and the mountains, and I think I have a sense of what people here feel is important,” he says. “I feel very much at home in West Virginia and very comfortable with its people. I’m not one to put on airs or think of myself any differently than anybody else. I can relate to West Virginians, and that is important to me—to be able to treat people with respect. One of the things I am most proud of at Marshall is our creed that talks about respect, valuing relationships and being part of a family. I feel strongly about helping this family, and I think higher education is a great and fun place to do that.”
