Thomas C. Meredith has served as the head of three university systems and as a university president during his 41-year career in higher education. He has been the Commissioner of Higher Education for Mississippi’s eight universities; the chancellor of the University System of Georgia, responsible for the state’s 35 public colleges and universities; the chancellor of the University of Alabama System; and president and professor of education at Western Kentucky University. He also served as a vice chancellor at the University of Mississippi. Since 2008, Meredith has served as a Senior Fellow for the Association of Governing Boards in Washington, D.C., helping university presidents and governing boards in 23 states and Puerto Rico.
Meredith holds a B.A. from Kentucky Wesleyan College, an M.A. from Western Kentucky University, an Ed.D. from the University of Mississippi, and he completed the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University and the Higher Education Roundtable at Oxford University.
Meredith was president of the National Association of Systems Heads, an organization comprised of the chief executive officers of the 52 public higher education systems in the United States. He also served as chair of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the first head of a university system to serve in that capacity.
Meredith holds two honorary doctorates and has been recognized by his alma maters including the naming of a building in his honor at Western Kentucky. He has twice been selected as the Ole Miss School of Education Alumnus of the Year.
Dr. Meredith’s wife Susan (BA 72), and sons Dr. Mark Meredith (BS 97, MD 01) and Matthew Meredith (BA 00) are an Ole Miss family.
Created in 1974, the Hall of Fame honors select alumni who have made an outstanding contribution to their country, state or the University of Mississippi through good deeds, services or contributions that have perpetuated the good name of Ole Miss.
Inductees into the Alumni Hall of Fame for 2016 are: David E. Brevard (BA 78) of Tupelo; James L. Cox, M.D. (63) of Atlanta; Thomas C. Meredith (EDD 71) of Oxford; Thomas J. “Sparky” Reardon (BAEd 72, PhD 00) of Oxford; and Constance Slaughter-Harvey (JD 70) of Forest.
T. Michael Glenn (BBA 77) of Memphis will receive the Alumni Service Award for service to the University and the Alumni Association over an extended period. Patrick Woodyard (BA 10) of Nashville, Tennessee, will receive the Outstanding Young Alumni Award, which recognizes alumni who have shown exemplary leadership throughout their first 15 years of alumni status in both their careers and dedication to Ole Miss.