Office of the VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

 

A native Richmonder, Dr. W. Weldon Hill earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education from Virginia Union University and both the Master of Music degree in composition and Doctor of Philosophy degree (as a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow) in musicology (music theory) from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. Additionally, he was a graduate assistant at Virginia Commonwealth University. His post-doctoral work includes a Certificate in Higher Education Management from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education Management Development Program as a Plan for Social Excellence Fellow and participation as one of 29 American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows Class of 2000-2001.

 

Dr. Hill began teaching in the VUU Department of Music in 1984 as Coordinator of Instrumental and Commercial Music at the rank of Assistant Professor. In this post, he assembled nationally recognized jazz ensembles, developed the Commercial Music/Jazz Studies curriculum, and continued to perform. He subsequently served as Chairperson of the Department of Music and Head of the Division of Humanities. He served on several committees, chairing Promotions and Tenure, University Life, and the Curriculum Review Committee; co-authored the current general education core curriculum; and coordinated the VUU Fine Arts Festivals. Appointed Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at VUU in 1993, Dr. Hill coordinated enrollment management and institutional research.   He was appointed Vice President for Academic Affairs at VUU in 1998 and was promoted to Provost and Senior Vice President in July 2001. Among his activities in these posts were service as Director of the university’s self-study for SACS reaffirmation, work with reaccredition from NCATE and CSWE, grantsmanship netting over $3,000,000, and curriculum development.   

 

Dr. Hill remains active as a musician with the Great American Music Ensemble—which has performed extensively at the Kennedy Center and for National Public Radio (NPR) with such artists as Jon Faddis, Jimmy Heath, Benny Carter, and Ethel Ennis—as a solo artist, with his own piano trio, and with the Good Shepherd Baptist Church Men’s Choir of Richmond, among others. He has recorded with an equally substantial number of artists. Dr. Hill’s research emphases are in the infusion the American music called “jazz” into other musical styles and genres and new directions in educational leadership.

 

Maintaining an active community service schedule, Dr. Hill serves on the Boards of Directors of the Richmond Boys Choir and the Richmond Jazz Society, as well as the Advisory Board for the Governors Great Call to Teach (Virginia). He has been involved in educational and public affairs outside the university, having served on the Boards of Carver Promise, Chair of the Board of the Virginia Association of Black Faculty and Administrators, and the Harvard University Management and Development Program Advisory Board.

 

Having been appointed Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Education at Virginia State University (Petersburg) in 2003, Dr. Hill is now responsible for management and development of the institution’s largest school (enrolling over 2,200 students) and its first doctoral program in educational leadership.