Bennett College president Dr. Rosalind Fuse-Hall is commencement speaker

Kesha Williams
May 06 2014

Elizabeth City State University welcomes Dr. Rosalind Fuse-Hall the 17th president of Bennett College as speaker for the university’s 158th commencement May 10. Fuse-Hall is a native of Atlanta Georgia but grew up in Fayetteville North Carolina. She was a frequent visitor on the campus of Fayetteville State University where her father was on the faculty. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in administration of criminal justice in 1980 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1983 she earned a Juris Doctor from Rutgers School of Law Newark New Jersey. Fuse-Hall also studied at Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Institute of Educational Management. Although she began her career in law Fuse-Hall soon gravitated to higher education. She comes from a family of educators. Her mother and five aunts were teachers. She is married to Dr. Jarvis Hall a political science professor at North Carolina Central University and her daughter Ifetoya Hall who is a 2013 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a teacher with Teach for America in Texas. Fuse-Hall began her legal career as a judicial law clerk with the Honorable William H. Walls Essex County Superior Court in Newark. Next she served as a staff attorney in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in New York City. Her first position in higher education was at St. Lawrence University where she was assistant director for minority affairs. Most recently she served as chief of staff to the president at Florida A&ampM University and interim executive director of Title III Programs. She has served as executive assistant to the chancellor at North Carolina Central University and corporate secretary to the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina system comprising 17 campuses. While at Florida A&ampM University Dr. Fuse-Hall managed $10 million dollars in special programs to enhance institutional strengths and student outcomes. She is especially proud of a grant that she drafted with several colleagues that was funded for an additional $10 million over five years. At North Carolina Central University she worked on two special initiatives that brought nearly $44 million to the University. One was the Biomanufacuturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise or &quotBRITE&quot Center for Excellence. This was a research institute that brought together the biotech industry governmental officials community colleges and a major research university to secure $19.1 million in capital funds to build the institute and an additional $7 million in annual operating funds from the state legislature. The second project resulted from a public-private partnership that built a 408-bed residence hall on the newly created West Campus of the University. Dr. Fuse-Hall also has worked as associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. In 2004 Dr. Fuse-Hall traveled to Southeast Asia on an Eisenhower Fellowship. She was in the charter class of BRIDGES a UNC Academic Leadership Program and was a participant in Leadership America a national leadership development program both in 1993. She serves on numerous boards and advisory panels and her professional affiliations include the Association of Black Women in Higher Education. Fuse-Hall is a member of the Links Inc. an international not-for-profit corporation with a membership of 12000 professional women of color devoted to voluntary public service. She is a frequent presenter and public speaker.