Committee recommends Conyers as next president of S.C. State

The committee met in executive session for a little over an hour on Thursday night before returning to vote unanimously for Conyers, who is an S.C. State alumnus.

The recommendation will go to the full S.C. State board, which is scheduled to meet May 4.

Conyers, a retired U.S. Army colonel, was named vice president for strategic alliances and initiatives at S.C. State in April 2021.

He became acting president In July 2021 after former president James Clark was ousted. Conyers was named interim president in August.

Conyers retired in 2016 after 28 years in the U.S. Army.

He rose from private to colonel as the leader of the Army’s largest military police brigade. He led over 3,600 soldiers and civilians across four military installations: Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Stewart, Georgia; Fort Campbell, Kentucky and Fort Drum, New York. He was also responsible for the safety of the Fort Bragg community with a population of over 100,000 personnel.

Before joining S.C. State, he worked in Washington, D.C., in the Senior Executive Service as the deputy assistant secretary of the Army. In this capacity, he led the Army Review Boards Agency, which serves as the highest administrative level for review and appeal of personnel actions taken by lower levels of the Army.

Conyers previously served as member of the SCSU Board of Visitors, chairman of the Student Relations Committee for the SCSU National Alumni Association and a member of the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee. He was featured as a 2016 honoree on the Stellar Alumni Calendar.

He has also been inducted into SCSU ROTC Hall of Fame and served as the president of the Washington, D.C., Chapter of the National Alumni Association.

A Manning native, Conyers holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from S.C. State, a master’s degree in corrections from the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree in public administration from Troy University.

He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and The University of North Carolina’s Leadership, Excellence and Development program. He is a member of several professional associations, including the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education, and a former adjunct professor at Upper Iowa University.