Jere W. Morehead became the University of Georgia’s 22nd president on July 1, 2013, having previously served as UGA’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost since 2010.

President Morehead’s career covers a wide range of faculty and administrative roles. Prior to 2010, he served UGA in several key administrative assignments, including vice president for instruction, vice provost for academic affairs, associate provost and director of the Honors Program, and acting executive director of legal affairs. From 2003 to 2010, he served as the University’s Faculty Athletics Representative.

As UGA President, he also serves as chair of the Georgia Athletic Association Board of Directors, chair of the UGA Research Foundation, a UGA Foundation trustee and a UGA Real Estate Foundation trustee. He has been appointed to a one-year term on the Committee of Research Intensive Public Universities by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and has been included in Georgia Trend’s list of Most Influential Georgians for four consecutive years.

President Morehead is the Meigs Professor of Legal Studies in the Terry College of Business, where he has held a faculty appointment since 1986. He is a co-author of several books and book chapters, including The Legal and Regulatory Environment of Business, and he has published scholarly articles on legal topics ranging from export controls to jury selection. He has served as editor-in-chief of the American Business Law Journal and previously held several other editorial board positions with theABLJ.

He directed the UGA Law School’s Advocacy Program from 1986 to 1995 at a time when the moot court teams he coached won international, national, regional and state championships. In 1995, he served as a visiting professor of business law at the University of Michigan.

President Morehead has received several University-wide teaching awards, including the Josiah Meigs Award — UGA’s highest honor for teaching excellence — the Richard B. Russell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Teacher of the Year Award in the Terry College of Business, and the Lothar Tresp Outstanding Honors Professor Award.

Morehead is a native of Lakeland, Florida. He moved with his family to Atlanta as a teenager, and enrolled at Georgia State University after graduating from high school at the age of 16. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1977. He entered the University of Georgia School of Law in 1977, where he graduated with a juris doctor degree at the age of 23 in 1980. After graduation, he served as an assistant United States attorney with the Department of Justice from 1980 to 1986. He is the first alumnus of UGA to be named president since Dr. Fred Davison in 1967.

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As Chief of Staff and Associate Vice President for Institutional Affairs, Dr. Pharr provides counsel to the President and serves as the principal liaison with the University System Chancellor’s Office. She also serves as the administrative liaison with the UGA Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, as well as the vice presidents of Government Relations, Development and Alumni Affairs, Marketing and Communications, and Finance and Administration, all of which report directly to the President. In addition, she provides administrative oversight of the offices of Legal Affairs, Internal Audit, and Equal Opportunity, which report through the Chief of Staff to the President.

She further serves as Secretary of the University Cabinet and manages all related correspondence for action items to the University System Office. In addition, she acts as principal liaison with the UGA Foundation and UGA Research Foundation, as well as with the University Council, University Council Executive Committee, and the President’s Faculty Advisory Committee.

Dr. Pharr also supervises the President’s Office staff and provides fiscal oversight of all state and private accounts that support it, oversees the operations of the President’s House, supervises the President’s Sky Suite during football season, and provides administrative oversight of all special events involving the President.

In addition, Dr. Pharr serves on a number of special task forces and committees as the President’s representative. She speaks as an invited guest lecturer for various campus leadership programs on such topics as crisis management, leadership development, and higher education communications.

Dr. Pharr joined UGA in August 1993 as Director of Communications and Public Relations for the School of Law. She first joined the President’s Office as an Assistant to the President in 2001, serving for three years as the President’s liaison with the University’s facilities and fundraising units and working closely with the UGA Foundation Board of Trustees and the UGA Real Estate Foundation. From 2004 to 2011, she served as Assistant Vice President for Finance and Administration and, in 2011, also assumed responsibility for the transition of the former Navy Supply Corps School facilities to the UGA Health Sciences Campus.

Prior to joining UGA, Dr. Pharr was a news reporter and anchor in Louisville, Kentucky, and Savannah. She holds three degrees from UGA: a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in journalism, a master’s degree in public administration, and a doctorate in higher education management.

In 1996, she received the Young Alumnus Award from the Georgia chapter of the Blue Key National Honor Society.

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Dr. Tschepikow serves as Special Assistant to the President and Director for Strategy and Innovation. His work focuses primarily on supporting the development of an innovation district at the University of Georgia. He also supports the President’s Office in the areas of university strategic planning, regional accreditation, and presidential communications. Additionally, he serves as the office liaison to the UGA Research Foundation and the Georgia Research Alliance.

Before assuming his current role, Dr. Tschepikow served for four years as Assistant to the President with responsibilities in the areas of presidential speechwriting and executive communications, senior administrative retreat planning, and athletics, among other duties.

Dr. Tschepikow received his bachelor’s degree in English literature from Henderson State University in Arkansas in 2003 and his master’s degree in the same field from the University of Wales—where his dissertation was awarded distinction—in 2005. He earned his doctorate from UGA’s Institute of Higher Education in 2012.

His academic accomplishments include peer-reviewed journal articles, a chapter in a monograph, and papers and presentations at various conferences. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on a range of topics, including college student outcomes assessment and accreditation, medieval literature, and Shakespeare and has led study abroad courses in Italy and England.

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Sheila Davis joined the President’s Office in September 1993 and has served in three administrations in a number of capacities. In her current role as Assistant to the President, her work focuses primarily on facilities, admissions, and athletics. She also serves as the liaison to the UGA Real Estate Foundation, Faculty Admissions Committee, and Georgia Athletic Association. In addition, Ms. Davis is the coordinator of the Senior Administrators Retreat, a member of the Commencement Steering Committee, and liaison to the Office of Special Events for the Presidents Club reception. 

Immediately prior to her role as Assistant to the President, Ms. Davis served as Operations Specialist in the President’s Office, providing day-to-day oversight of administrative staff operations, helping to coordinate the President’s SkySuite during football season, and serving as liaison for capital projects and related special events.

Ms. Davis earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from Georgia Southern University in 1992 and her master’s degree in public administration from Jacksonville State University in 1993.

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Arthur Tripp, Jr. joined the President’s Office in November 2015. As assistant to the president, his work focuses primarily on student affairs and institutional diversity. He also serves as the liaison to the Staff Council, Retirees Association, and Board of Visitors, and he represents the Office of the President in the planning of several annual campus events.

Prior to joining the President’s Office, Mr. Tripp worked as a staff member in the United States House of Representatives, where he served as senior policy advisor for a U.S. Congressman and oversaw the Congressman’s U.S. House Committee on Financial Services assignment as it related to Financial Institutions, Consumer Credit, and Capital Markets.

Additionally, Mr. Tripp oversaw the Congressman’s U.S. House Committee on Agriculture portfolio as it related to Commodities, Exchange, Energy, and Credit.

While in Washington, DC, Mr. Tripp served as a member of the UGA School of Public and International Affairs board of directors and as president of the Georgia State Society board of directors.

Mr. Tripp was named a member of the 40 Under 40 Class of 2015 by the UGA Alumni Association, an honor given to alumni under the age of 40 who have made a significant impact in business, leadership, community, educational, or philanthropic endeavors. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Georgia in 2009.

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