Rotary Annual Tribute Gala | Rotary Club of Dahlonega Sunrise

Dr. Bonita Jacobs President, University of North Georgia 2011-2023
The 17th president of North Georgia College & State University, became the University’s first female president and only the second woman to lead one of the country’s six Senior Military Colleges.
Oversaw the consolidation between North Georgia and Gainesville State College to become the University of North Georgia in 2013. The University of North Georgia serves nearly 18,000 students across five campuses.
Honored as one of the “100 Most Influential Georgians” and by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of the “Top Education Leaders in Atlanta” and to its list of “Women Who Mean Business.” She received the 2020 Distinguished Citizen Award from the Northeast Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and the 2020 Circle of Excellence Award from the Association for Orientation, Transition, and Retention in Higher Education.
Serves on the Truist Georgia Regional Advisory Board and the Peach Belt Conference Executive Committee. Previously served on the American Council on Education (ACE) National Task Force on the Transfer and Award of Credit and the AASCU Board of Directors. Also served as a mentor in the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Millennium Leadership Initiative and the University System of Georgia (USG) Executive Leadership Institute

Founder and first executive director of the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students. Was Vice President for Student Development and a tenured professor of counseling and higher education at the University of North Texas. Previously served as Assistant Vice Chancellor and as Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Development at Western Carolina University and in student development positions at Stephen F. Austin State University.
Received a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and history and a master’s in counseling from Stephen F. Austin State University, and she earned her doctorate in Educational Administration from Texas A&M University
A recipient of multiple awards for leadership in higher education and student development, Jacobs is a frequent speaker on transfer and student success issues, and has conducted a significant amount of externally funded grant research. Former editor of The Journal of College Orientation and Transition and served on three other editorial boards. Her publications include:
UNG The Gold I See!: The Legacy of UNG’s Dahlonega Campus
The College Transfer Student in America: The Forgotten Student
Starting From Scratch: Your First-Year Experience, as well as numerous chapters, journal articles and reviews.
Strategic Mergers in Higher Education, (Johns Hopkins University Press),
UNG The Gold I See: The Legacy of UNG’s Dahlonega Campus, and
The Best Day Ever! The Legacy of the UNG Gainesville Campus, published in August 2021.
Jacobs is originally from Huntington, Texas. She and her husband, Glenn, live in Dahlonega.