Alabama A&M University has named Dr. Douglas D. LaVergne Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Undergraduate Studies. LaVergne joins AAMU from Lincoln University in Missouri, where he served for two years as Dean of the College of Agriculture, Environmental and Human Sciences, as well as Vice President for Land Grant Engagement.

In his new capacity, LaVergne will assume responsibility for providing strategic administrative leadership for the university’s undergraduate academic programs. He will oversee formulating, implementing, and continuously refining policies, procedures, and practices to ensure the effective and high-quality delivery of baccalaureate-level education.

Prior to his tenure at Lincoln University, LaVergne served as Associate Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Texas A&M University–Commerce. With a career in higher education spanning nearly three decades, LaVergne has held academic appointments at both land-grant institutions, such as West Virginia University (1862), and
non–land-grant institutions, including Texas A&M University–Commerce.

His professional background encompasses a broad range of expertise, including agricultural education, extension services, teaching, personnel management, academic program development, policy formulation, and financial oversight.

LaVergne, a native of Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana, attributes his early interest in agriculture to summers spent working in his father’s rice fields. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education with a concentration in Agricultural Education from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He went on to receive a Master of Science in Agricultural and Extension Education from the University of Arkansas, and in 2008, completed a Ph.D. in Agricultural Education at Texas A&M University in College Station.

LaVergne has been recognized with numerous awards for excellence in teaching and research. In 2003, he was honored as a George Washington Carver Fellow at the University of Arkansas.