About Dillard University
Dillard University: Our host. And the only US university currently a partner of the Melton Foundation.
Since 1869, Dillard University has been committed to providing students with a quality four-year liberal arts education. Dillard is a fully accredited private, historically black university. In 2010, U.S. News & World Report ranked Dillard among the nation’s Top 10 HBCUs, based on comprehensive undergraduate studies. Dillard also was awarded a Top 10 Ranking in 2010 for liberal arts schools in the social mobility category by Washington Monthly. Dillard University is also the only university in the United States that is currently a partner in the Melton Foundation. Dillard students who become Melton Fellows participate in intercultural training, leadership development, and global education through symposia, travel, online activities, project grants, and social service.
The cornerstone of New Orleans’s Gentilly Community, the university sits on a beautiful and serene 55-acre campus, replete with signature live oak trees and a mixture of historic buildings and modern facilities. Dillard University's mission is to produce graduates who excel, become world leaders, are broadly educated, culturally aware, and concerned with improving the human condition. Through a highly personalized and learning-centered approach, Dillard's students are able to meet the competitive demands of a diverse, global and technologically advanced society.
Dillard students go on to some of the best graduate schools in the world. Dillard currently has alumni studying at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Johns Hopkins and the London School of Economics, among others. Graduates of Dillard represent a wide range of highly successful global leaders in fields ranging from medicine and law, to higher education and international business, to arts and entertainment. Here are just a few of our notable alumni:
Lisa Frazier-Page, ’84
Staff Writer
The Washington Post
Co-Author
The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream
Living and Dying in Brick City: An ER Doctor Returns Home
Glenda Goodly-McNeal, ’82
Senior Vice President
Global Partnerships, American Express Corporation
Ellis M. Marsalis, Jr., ’55
Jazz Pianist
Garrett Morris, ’58
Actor/Comedian
Revius Ortique, Jr., Esq., ’47
Louisiana Supreme Court Justice (Deceased)
Brenda Marie Osbey, ’78
Poet Laureate for Louisiana
Joyce M. Roche, ’70
Former CEO and President
Girls, Inc.
Dr. Samuel Biggers, '56
First black examiner of the American Board of Neurological Surgery
Vice Chair and Professor at Charles Drew Medical School, Los Angeles
John Ruffin, ’65
Director
National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
Ruth Simmons, Ph.D., ’67
18th President of Brown University