Skyrocket Welcomes Dr. Garikai Campbell to its Board of Directors

Deputy Director From the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Brings With Him Extensive Experience Engaging Underrepresented Students 

NEW YORK, NY, May 2023 — Skyrocket Education is honored to welcome Deputy Director for Strategy, Planning and Management for the Postsecondary Success team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Garikai Campbell, as its newest Board member.

As a member of Skyrocket’s Board, Dr. Campbell brings with him a fresh perspective on education and academics, as well as extensive experience engaging underrepresented students. 

At the Gates Foundation, Dr. Campbell supports the team’s efforts to move Higher Education closer to being a system in which student outcomes and the quality of the student experience leverage and reflect the full breadth of diverse perspectives, priorities, and lived experiences, particularly across race, ethnicity, and income.

Dr. Campbell received his BA in mathematics from Swarthmore College, where he was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, and then received his PhD in mathematics from Rutgers University. He held a number of positions at Swarthmore including associate dean for academic affairs and associate vice president for strategic planning. He also served as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at UNC Asheville. In that role, he helped shape the overall strategic direction of the university with special attention to the academic program. In 2013, Campbell was appointed provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Morehouse College, and after that, served as provost and dean of the college at Knox College.

He is the recipient of several awards, including the Minority Graduate Fellowship from the National Science Foundation; the Lindback Minority Junior Faculty Grant; the Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship; and the Henry Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member from the Mathematical Association of America. In addition, he has served as a “Something-in-Residence” at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts in the Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Campbell is recognized for his innovative work in shaping programs designed to engage and retain students underrepresented in STEM disciplines. In particular, he has worked with the Professional Development Program at the University of California, Berkeley to increase enrollment and improve the success of African American, Latinx, and Native American students in graduate mathematics programs; helped design and administer alternative assessments for the Vanguard Scholarship Program of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME); and taught and consulted for the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Program to strengthen women’s success in graduate mathematics programs. In addition, he served on the advisory boards for the Math is Power and Figure This! campaigns, promoting math and science literacy to elementary and middle school-aged children and their parents.