Board of Trustees

Distinguished scholar, instructor, administrator and public policy expert, Walter D. Broadnax is the second president of Clark Atlanta University (CAU). CAU was established in 1988 with the consolidation of two historic institutions, Atlanta University (1865) and Clark College (1869). Prior to his presidency at Clark Atlanta University, Broadnax served as Dean of the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C., and as professor of public policy and management in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland, where he also directed the Bureau of Governmental Research.

For a six-year period from 1981 to 1987, Broadnax was a full-time faculty member at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. From 1993 to 1996, he was the Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In prior years, he held key positions in state government, as President of the New York Civil Service Commission and as the Director of Children, Youth and Adult Services for the State of Kansas.

Broadnax currently serves on the Advisory Board of Harvard University's Taubman Center and is a Trustee of Syracuse University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia Research Alliance, and the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Regional Consortium for Higher Education (ARCHE) and the Georgia Foundation of Independent Colleges. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) and the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC).

Born in Arkansas and reared in Kansas, Broadnax received his B.A. degree from Washburn University, M.P.A. degree from The University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.