Fayetteville State University Dean Named Chair of Veterans’ Rural Health Advisory Committee

Fayetteville, N.C. (October 26, 2022) — Marcus S. Cox, Ph.D., dean of Fayetteville State University’s (FSU) College of Humanities and Social Sciences, was recently appointed chair of the Veterans’ Rural Health Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Cox will serve as chair for the next three years. The committee provides advice to the U.S. Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs on ways to improve and enhance access to health care services for enrolled veterans residing in rural areas by reviewing current program activities and identifying barriers to accessing care and services.

“I am honored to help lead the important work of improving access to health care for our veterans,” Cox said. “So many of our FSU students are associated with the military, it’s rewarding to know I can support them in this capacity as well as academically.”

“Simply put, we have brilliant faculty members at FSU and appointments like this one just serve as reminders of the high caliber expertise that grace our campus,” said FSU Chancellor Darrell T. Allison. “I congratulate Dr. Cox on this appointment, and am grateful for his continued service to our students.”

Cox’s academic specialty is African American civil-military history, the Modern Civil Rights Movement, African American history, and U.S. history post 1945. He has authored more than two dozen articles, reviews and book chapters in peer-reviewed journals and academic publications on African American military history, black higher education and military training programs at black colleges and universities. He is also the author of Segregated Soldiers: Military Training at Historically Black Colleges in the Jim Crow South (Louisiana State University Press).

Cox also serves as a Fellow at the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. Before joining FSU, he served as associate dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was also the founding director of the African American and Diaspora Studies program. Prior to that, he served as assistant dean of The Citadel School of Humanities and Social Sciences and associate dean of The Citadel Graduate College with responsibility for Evening Undergraduate Studies at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina.

Cox’s current book project documents the life and contributions of several unknown local civil rights activists who were also military veterans in Louisiana and Alabama in the post-World War II era. He hopes to inspire today’s young Americans with this story of sacrifice, courage, and servant-leadership in local communities throughout the Deep South and demonstrate that the fight for racial justice and equality has a historic connection to military service and training.

Cox is also a former member of the Advisory Committee for the Roundtable Discussion on Diversity and Inclusion, United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. Among many organizations and associations, Cox is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the Knights of Peter Claver, and the American Conference of Academic Deans.

Cox earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in history from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as well as a master’s degree in business administration from The Tommy and Victoria School of Business at The Citadel Military College of South Carolina. Cox earned his Ph.D. in American history from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.