2025 W.E.B. Du Bois Award Recipient: Dr. Rick Gallot

 

Richard “Rick” Gallot, Jr. was named president of the University of Louisiana System on October 25, 2023. Since 2016, he served as the 10th president of Grambling State University. Prior to that, he served one term as a member of the Louisiana State Senate, three terms in the Louisiana House of Representatives and one term on the Grambling City Council.

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Gallot graduated from Grambling State University with a bachelor’s degree in history and earned his juris doctorate degree from the Southern University School of Law in Baton Rouge. He attended the Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

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Gallot was inducted into the Grambling State University Alumni Hall of Fame and the Southern Law School Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of the 2017 HBCUGrow “Best Leadership Award” during his first year as president of Grambling State University. He is an active member of New Living Word Ministries in Ruston, LA; Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.; and the Committee of 100 for Economic Development, an influential independent, non-government, business roundtable of Louisiana senior corporate executives and university leaders.

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Gallot has been a licensed attorney for 32 years and serves on the board of directors of Cleco Corporation, an electric utility company, headquartered in Pineville, LA and the Board of Directors of Origin Bank located in Ruston. President Gallot is married to the former Christy Cox, and they have four sons.
 

The W. E. B. Du Bois Award was introduced in 1970 to honor outstanding social and behavioral scientists and civic leaders who have made significant contributions to improve the lives of Black Americans. Past North Carolina award recipients include: The Honorable Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson (2015); U. S. Congresswoman Alma S. Adams (2008); The Honorable Justice Henry E. Frye, former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court (2002); and Dr. Dorothy Cowser Yancy, past President of Johnson C. Smith University (1996).