Awards
- Distinguished Alumni Service Award - 1992
- Honorary Degree - 1977
- LL.D.
- Doctor of Laws
- Commencement
- Bloomington, Indiana
- Presenter: John William Ryan
About Gloria Dean Randle Scott
Gloria Dean Randle Scott, president of the Girl Scouts of America and former head of the Post-Secondary Education Unit of the National Institute of Education, was graduated from Indiana University in 1959 with an A.B. degree in zoology. During her undergraduate and graduate days at I.U. she was active in a variety of student activities, serving as president of her residence hall and her sorority, and an officer and member of the I.U. Foundation Student Committee, the Roger Williams Fellowship, the YWCA, and a number of recognition and honorary groups. Among her honors was a citation in 1964 from then Governor Matthew Welch as the Outstanding Black Student in the State of Indiana.
After receiving the master's degree in zoology in 1960, she taught in the Biology Department at Marian College in Indianapolis, becoming that institution's first black faculty member. She completed the Ph.D. degree in the administration of higher education in 1965. In 1959 she married Will Braxton Scott, a native of Texas, who also earned a doctor's degree in higher education from I.U.
Since completing her doctor's degree, she has held such positions in higher education as dean of students at Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tennessee; special assistant to the president, director of institutional research and planning, and professor at North Carolina A. & T. State University; and since 1975, professor of higher education at Texas Southern University in her native Houston, Texas.
She has made particularly significant contributions to national organizations, including service as national secretary and vice president of her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta. Other activities include regional and national volunteer work for the Girl Scouts, including chairing its national program committee and executive committees and, currently, serving the second year of a three-year term as its national president. In August, 1976, she was elected to a three-year term on the board of directors of the National Urban League.
The leadership ability so evident in her undergraduate and graduate days quickly became visible in her early professional life through a series of workshops conducted in various locations for college administrative personnel at Knoxville College, North Carolina A. & T. State University, University of Illinois, and at various other locations. She has served as a consultant or as an evaluator to numerous institutions and programs, including membership or chairmanship of a number of visitation committees of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Her keen analytical and effective human relations skills evident in her consultant and administrative assignment resulted in her appointment in March, 1964, as head of the Post-Secondary Education Unit of the National Institute of Education, H.E.W. Her work involved development and management of a multi-million dollar budget and program in post-secondary educational research, representing the N.I.E. on interagency task forces, and liaison with congressional staffs.
In October, 1976, she was appointed to the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year by then President Ford and was reappointed by President Carter in March of this year, further evidence of her outstanding record of leadership.