Jarvis Christian University will host its Honors Convocation Tuesday, April 11, featuring guest speaker, Dr. Lawrence Morehouse, President and CEO of Florida Education Fund (FEF). Founded in 1984, FEF is a nonprofit that creates and implements programs that lead to greater educational advancement for historically underrepresented groups.Under his leadership, FEF has raised more than $106 million for pre-college and doctoral programs while growing its endowment from $8 million to over $27 million. It also doubled the number of fellowships offered annually and created online graduate writing workshops, professional editorial services, and writing conferences for graduate students and junior faculty. These changes increased student graduation and retention rates to close to 90% and reduced time to Ph.D. degree to a record low 5.5 years. Morehouse was principal or co-principal investigator for NSF and other grants from numerous foundations, boards and consortia.
Prior to retiring from the University of South Florida (USF) in 2021, Morehouse was an Affiliate Associate Professor and a tenured Associate Professor at the University’s School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies. He has directed the USF political science and pre-law programs and served as acting chair of its Department of Government and International Affairs. He has taught at the USF Honors College and the USF Public Administration Certificate Program, and developed and taught courses in Administrative Law to members of the Tampa and Sarasota city and county governments. Additionally, Dr. Morehouse developed and taught courses for Louisiana State University (LSU), Southern University (SU), New College (the Florida Honors College in Sarasota Florida), and the Cornell University Department of Government.
During his 36 years as a professor in higher education, developing educational policy, publishing, presenting at conferences, and doing speaking engagements and television and radio appearances, Morehouse acquired many fellowships, scholarships and awards. He was a Cornell University Fellow and two-time recipient of USF’s Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award. As a researcher and writer, he received the Earnhart Research Grant, NSF Planning Grant, the PEW Foundation Commission Scholar and Research Grant, the Stanford University Scholar Award, and the McKnight Junior Faculty Fellowship.
At the forefront of educational reform, Morehouse served on the One Florida Accountability Commission, the Florida Board of Education Accountability Commission, the Governor’s Access and Diversity Commission, the Florida Jury Innovations Committee, and boards of The Education Channel, Tampa Bay United Way, the Tampa Chamber of Commerce, and the Museum of Science and Industry, among others. He also published several book chapters, refereed journal articles, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the FEF Journal of Interdisciplinary Research. He earned his undergraduate degree from Southern University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Cornell University.
He is a current member of the Florida Memorial University Board of Trustees and past member of the College Board Southern Regional Council and the Florida Department of Education Student Growth Implementation Committee.
