Sources close to the Saint Augustine University board of trustees say that Christine Johnson McPhail, a former HBCU administrator and the widow of former SAU President Irving McPhail, will be announced as the school’s permanent president next week.
Johnson McPhail was confirmed by trustees this week after interviews concluded for several candidates, according to sources.
Along with her husband, Johnson McPhail was the co-founder, president, and chief executive officer of the McPhail Group, an education consulting firm based in New York. The president emerita of Cypress College was the first African American and woman to hold the executive office from 1995 to 1998 before moving to Baltimore and creating Morgan State University’s doctoral program in community college leadership, a program which she also directed until 2007.
McPhail died in October 2020 of complications related to coronavirus infection. Johnson McPhail will be the fifth permanent or appointed president to serve at the school since 2019.
