Executive Committee

Dr. Ronald Mason, Jr.assumed the presidency of Jackson State University on February 1, 2000.  He is Chief Executive Officer of the only university based in the largest metropolitan area and capital city of the state of Mississippi. He brought to the University a wealth of experience in higher education, community development and the law. At the time of his appointment by the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning, he was serving as Executive Director of the Tulane-Xavier National Center for the Urban Community in New Orleans, Louisiana.

As President of Jackson State University, Dr. Mason serves on the Boards of Downtown Jackson Partners, Jackson Medical Mall Foundation, Mississippi Technology Alliance, Mississippi Telecommunications Conference and Training Center Commission, the Mississippi Commission for International Cultural Exchange, and the MetroJackson Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Mason earned his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Columbia University. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Institute of Educational Management.

Dr. Earl Watkins, superintendent of Jackson Public Schools, is a native Mississippian. He was raised in the heart of the Delta and attended the public schools in Belzoni. He has degrees from Mississippi Valley State University and Jackson State University.

He brings a wealth of experience to this post. He has served JPS as a teacher, a math curriculum coordinator, an assistant principal, a middle school principal, a high school principal and as executive principal for the Jim Hill feeder pattern. He has also been an adjunct professor at Jackson State University in the Department of Educational Foundations and Leadership since August 2000. Dr. Watkins was named superintendent of Jackson Public Schools on June 20, 2002, and became the district’s youngest superintendent in recent history.  In addition to being a dedicated employee of JPS, Dr. Watkins also is active in the community. Besides serving on several boards for educational entities, he has also been vitally involved in his home church, World Overcomers Ministries Church, where he serves as a lay minister and a board member. He and his wife, Cassaundra, have founded an organization called, Up From the Ashes, a faith-based organization (ministry) that was developed to provide services to people who need help in areas such as education, Biblical teaching, and personal development.   

Dr. Velvelyn Foster, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Student Life, is responsible for administrative oversight of all academic matters and student services of the University.   She is committed to building a strong curriculum to ensure a quality education for students, and an environment conducive to faculty and staff development. Her steadfast commitment to Jackson State is evident in her more than three decades of service to the university.

Foster earned the B. A. degree from Jackson State University and the M.A. and Doctor of Arts degrees from Carnegie Mellon University. She began her tenure at Jackson State as associate professor of history and later achieved the rank of full professor. Her academic areas of specialization include southern history, women's history, and Mississippi history. Her research efforts and collaborations have resulted in publications in scholarly and refereed history journals, a history textbook currently used in Mississippi’s public schools, as well as publications on education topics pertaining to curriculum reform, teacher education and social studies. She has presented papers covering topics related to American History prior to 1865, the Reconstruction Era, Recent American Political History, Black Genealogy, and the Constitution at various national meetings and conferences.

Dr. Bonita Coleman-Potter, Deputy Superintendent, Office of Instruction Jackson Public School District, is responsible for overseeing the effective functioning of all (58) schools in the school district.  In addition, her office serves as the primary source of the development and implementation of the district’s curriculum and instructional services. Under Dr. Potter’s guidance, the state’s largest and only urban school district operates at an optimal level in the areas of accountability and research, district wide professional development, literacy, gifted education, advanced academics, instructional technology, and curriculum and instruction functions.   She is dedicated to helping educators increase their instructional capacities in order to provide a high quality education for every child. Her ability to inspire, facilitate, guide and teach educators in setting and achieving the highest standards of academic excellence is highly commendable.

Potter earned the B. A. degree from Tougaloo (MS) College, the M.A. from the University of Mississippi, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Jackson State University. She began her career as a Language Arts teacher before rapidly ascending to Division Director and Bureau Director of Reading, Early Childhood, Language Arts, and Associate State Superintendent of the Office of Academic Education at the Mississippi Department of Education.  She has provided coordination and leadership in the revision process for all Mississippi Curriculum Frameworks and implementation of the state’s Reading First Initiative.  Additionally, she coordinated the state’s compliance with the Mattie T Consent Decree and revision of the state’s special education policies and procedures, and served as chair of the Mississippi Mega Schools Conference which hosts over 5,000 Mississippi educators and is dedicated to informing participants of research based instruction, assessment and accountability practices.

Kelly Butler currently serves as the Director of Program Strategy for the Barksdale Reading Institute.  The Institute’s mission is to improve significantly the reading achievement of Kindergarten through third grade students in low performing public schools throughout Mississippi.  Ms. Butler holds a bachelor’s degree in Special Education from The University of Alabama and a master’s degree in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.  Following graduate school she taught at the secondary level in the Greenwich Connecticut Public Schools and later served as Special Assistant to the Region IV Secretary of Health Education and Welfare in Atlanta.  She has worked extensively with a variety of non-profit organizations in social service, health care, and education in the areas of program development, support, and evaluation.

Prior to joining the Barksdale Reading Institute, she served as National Executive Director of Parents for Public Schools, a network of community-based organizations advocating equity and excellence in public schools.  Ms. Butler lives in Jackson with her husband, Thorne.  They have five daughters.

Mr. J. Martez Hill was named Deputy State Superintendent of Education for Mississippi on March 1, 2006. A Georgia native, Mr. Hill obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Emory University, in Atlanta, GA (May, 1993).  He also attended Duke University Sanford Institute of Public Policy in Durham, NC, as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow  and received a Master of Public Policy (May,
1996). Mr. Hill’s extensive experience reflects an active involvement in public policy, public finance, and administration in Georgia government.  From 2003 to 2006, he served as Policy Director for the Georgia State Department of Education, where he advised Georgia State Superintendent of Schools and State Board of Education on state and federal policy and budget matters, drafted rules and regulations for adoption by the state board, and developed the department’s strategic plan and performance measures for the governor’s annual budget report.   He also served as a primary contact to the Governor’s Office, Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, General Assembly, state education associations, local school systems, Georgia and Metro Atlanta chambers of commerce, and national education organizations. He also led staff to the Governor’s Education Finance Taskforce and Georgia P-16 Council.

Dr. Hank M. Bounds was named State Superintendent of Education for Mississippi on June 23, 2005. Born in Hattiesburg, Miss., he was educated in the public schools of this state graduating from Forrest County Agricultural High School in Brooklyn, Miss., in 1985. His undergraduate degree in secondary education was earned at the University of Southern Mississippi in 1991. His master’s degree in Educational Administration was conferred by the University of Southern Mississippi in 1994. A Doctoral of Philosophy degree was conferred by the University of Mississippi in 2000.

Before becoming Mississippi’s State Superintendent of Education, Dr. Bounds served as superintendent of the Pascagoula School District for four years. In this role he improved test scores at every school in the district while significantly closing the achievement gap among all subgroups, and designed and implemented a leadership/school improvement model that provided the impetus for both high schools in the district to be nominated as National Blue Ribbon Schools in 2005. Prior to being named Pascagoula Schools Superintendent, he served as principal of Pascagoula High School for two years. Before coming to Pascagoula, Dr. Bounds was principal in Lumberton, a school district with about 1,000 students in grades K-12. He was named principal of his alma mater, Forrest County High School, at the age of 26. He also taught at Petal and Moss Point high schools before entering into administration.