By Bill W. Cooper
The interim president of the Cuttington University in Liberia, Dr. Romelle A. Horton will this Saturday, November 12, 2022 be inducted as the 13th and first female president of the University for the next five years.
Dr. Horton who has been the University’s interim president will be replacing Herman Browne after bidding farewell to the university at the 14th Commencement Convocation on April 17, 2021 following his end of tenure.
The Cuttington University is a private university in Suacoco, Liberia with four campuses in Montserrado and other counties including the School of Graduate and Professional Studies located in Congo Town opposite the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) party headquarter.
Founded in 1889 as Cuttington College and Divinity School through a donation from Robert Cutting of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States; it is the oldest private, coeducational, four-year, degree-granting institution in the sub Saharan.
Explaining her plans and visions for the University at a program marking its Investiture Media Blitz in Congo Town, Dr. Horton outlined a three-pillar vision ranging from Pathway to Greatness, Greatness through Innovation and Scholarly Integrity, noting that these three pillars have three projects – Light Cuttington, Feed Cuttington and Grow Cuttington.
In line with her three pillars’ vision, Dr. Horton also disclosed plans by the University to begin offering a Doctoral program in that milieu, revealing, “As you may know, Cuttington was the first Institution to start a Master’s program in Divinity, so we are doing what we do best.”
“The program is expected to be launched in January of 2023 with two tracks: Doctoral in Ministry (DMin) and Doctoral in Theology (ThD) and a significant amount of work is being done for the actualization of these program,” she maintained.
According to her, another program that has started is the Liberia Dental Therapy School something she said is another gap that they are filling, continuing, “We are in partnership with Trinity Dental at ELWA Hospital. This program actually started October 3rd, 2022 and it is a two-year program, and the students are going to graduate with an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Dental Therapy.”
She explained that the goal is to equip all 15 counties with dental hygienists and thus alleviate people coming to Monrovia for Dental care and actually saving lives. “We do not want us reverting to our youthful days where we used to put the thread on the door handle and pull our tooth out – yikes. This is what we are trying to do and we are thrilled to be in partnership with Trinity and Dr. Simon Stretton-Downes, who is the brain behind this and a strong advocate.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Horton has at the same time also further revealed that they have added a fifth school and it is called “The School of Global Affairs and Policy” as the Dean of that School is Elias B. Shoniyin, who worked at Liberia’s Foreign Ministry for many years.
She added, “In that School, they also award a degree in Sustainable Development, another program that only Cuttington offers in Liberia, and at that School, there are tracks for Hospitality Management and Tourism; International Relations; Foreign Service and Diplomatic Studies as well as a number of new programs were also added to the School of Public Health; MSc. in Maternal Child Health, Public Health Nutrition and others.”
All about Dr. Romelle A. Horton:
Dr. Romelle A. Horton is a native of Liberia and a strong advocate for educational, developmental, gender equality, service-learning and refugee issues, and is currently the interim president of Cuttington University in Liberia, making her the First Female President in the University’s 133-year history.
She graduated Summa Cum Laude (Valedictorian) with a degree in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from Voorhees College, a private Episcopal College in Denmark, South Carolina. And after graduation, she worked as a Solution Delivery Analyst with Accenture, LTD, a global consultancy for several years before pursuing graduate studies and obtained a M.A. with Distinction, in International Service and Development at the University of Surrey, now Roehampton University, London.
She reviewed and edited the book, “Sustaining Liberia’s Peace”, authored by Olubanke King-Akerele and wrote the Prologue for the Questionnaire for Volume Two; she also wrote the Concept Note for and participated in the 2019 Queens Commonwealth Essay Competition and Awards Ceremony held at Buckingham Palace in October 2019.
She also chairs the Board of Trustees of Kids Educational Engagement Project (KEEP), an organization that is instrumental in building schools and reading rooms across Liberia; serves on the Board of EcoBank, Liberia; is a Human Development Panelist on Education at Warwick University’s Annual Africa Summit in the United Kingdom and authored Chapter 11 (Education) of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Legacy Project now published.
She has a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Leadership (Education Management) from the University of Botswana; was called to national duty and served as Deputy Minister for Instruction at the Ministry of Education, Chief Government Nominee for the West African Examination Council (WAEC), Liberia, Vice-Chairperson of WAEC, International, Vice President for Academic Support Services at AME University and is an African Women Academics in Research & Development (AWARD) Fellow.
