Melva K. Wallace

For over twenty years Dr. Melva K. Wallace has worked in higher education as a leader and as a fierce national advocate. Today, she proudly serves as the seventh President and CEO of the top private liberal arts college in Texas and the number 3 HBCU in the country, Huston-Tillotson University, in Austin, TX. HT is the first institution of higher learning in the city of Austin, and since President Wallace who is affectionately known on social media as MKWthe7th has taken the helm, this powerhouse institution boasts increased fundraising efforts, increase in new student enrollment, increased international student enrollment, increased graduate enrollment, and increased online enrollment. As a fiscal conservative, Dr. Wallace has been named in 2025 by NCRF as the most innovative university President and has been highly successful in assisting institutions reach their financial goals and trains higher education CPAs on best practices for enrollment, cost controls, and fiscal compliance. To date, Wallace has been instrumental in amassing over $20 million in grants and gifts. President Wallace is a Presidential Leadership Scholar who was selected in 2016 to study leadership under the tutelage of three former American Presidents, President George H. W. Bush, President George W. Bush, and President William J. Clinton. In 2020, she was heralded as “a futurist” by former President George W. Bush.