Ohio State’s Executive President and Provost Melissa Gilliam joined the university in 2021. Gilliam will leave the university at the end of the calendar year to become Boston University’s new president. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State

Executive Vice President and Provost Melissa Gilliam will leave Ohio State at the end of the year to become the 11th president at Boston University.

Gilliam joined the university in 2021 under former leader Kristina M. Johnson and became the first woman of color to serve as Ohio State’s provost, making a yearly rate of $618,000, according to Ohio State’s salary database. This is the first major departure of leadership that joined under Johnson, whose reason for leaving the university at the end of the last academic year still remains unknown.

Gilliam will now become Boston University’s first woman and Black president starting Jan. 1, 2024, taking over for Robert Brown, who stepped down during the summer.

Gilliam launched the Academic Plan while at Ohio State and created new structures to advance academic life, according to the university. These include the Provost’s Early Career Scholars Program, a multidisciplinary cohort that participate in dedicated activities focused on research and scholarship, and the Scarlet and Gray Associate Professors Program, which helped maintain premier faculty. 

“More will be shared on transition plans soon as Ohio State prepares for a national search for Dr. Gilliam’s successor,” Acting President Peter Mohler said in an email. “In the meantime, join me in wishing her the very best in her new role. She has helped to advance Ohio State in areas critical to our mission, and we will have opportunities to show our appreciation over the next several months.”

Prior to becoming provost at Ohio State, Gilliam was a professor of obstetrics and gynecology. She received her M.D. from Harvard and Master of Public Health from the University of Chicago, where she also previously ran a research center, according to Ohio State’s website.

“I am excited to join the community of students, faculty and staff at Boston University, and I am grateful to everyone at Ohio State who worked with the Office of Academic Affairs to advance this institution’s academic mission,” Gilliam said, in an Ohio State news article.