Carmen Lanos Williams is Appointed Director of Honors College
JONESBORO – Carmen Lanos Williams was named director of the Honors College program at Arkansas State University, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Calvin White Jr. announced this week.
A native Arkansan and four-time graduate of A-State, Lanos Williams steps into the role of leading the university’s Honors College after serving for several years as an instructor and then assistant professor in English and heritage studies.
“I was pleased to confirm Dean Nesbitt and the selection committee’s recommendation for Dr. Lanos Williams as she represents not only our commitment to higher education for all Arkansans, she is an individual that traveled away, but returned home for her career,” White said. “I am looking forward to her leadership as we revitalize our Honors program here at A-State. Lanos Williams well understands that her job is to make A State's Honors College one of the best in the state. We have undergraduate research opportunities in the Arkansas Bioscience Institute, an on-campus medical school, a soon-to-be college of veterinary medicine, coupled with growing graduate enrolment that we believe will attract the best and brightest students from every part of Arkansas.”
Williams was selected for appointment by Dean Nikesha Nesbitt of A-State’s University College. As an integral part of UC, A-State’s Honors College program has a more than 40-year history of providing the opportunity for special experiences to enhance and expand their knowledge and abilities in their chosen majors or fields.
“Dr. Williams is a great addition to University College,” Nesbitt said. “I am excited and look forward to working with her and watching her build on and advance our work in support of student success, transformative learning, and engagement in the Honors College. I am confident that her leadership skills and remarkable ability to inspire students will serve her well in this new role as she helps usher in the next era of the Honors College.”
Lanos Williams completed her Ph.D. in heritage studies at A-State, completing her program with her dissertation, "Arkansas in the African American Imaginary: A Rhetoric of Place." She has numerous publications and presentations related to both her work in heritage studies as well as creative works as an English professor.
“I want to thank the search committee, Dean Nesbitt and the University College for considering me for this position,” Williams said. “But most of all, I want to thank the students of the Honors College for their service to the college in recruiting and student engagement. I don’t think the campus community knows that both existing students and transfer students can be admitted to Honors. So my first job is to find eligible Honors applicants right here on our campus.”
She earned the First-Year Experience Award for Outstanding Teaching at A-State in 2014 along with other honors related to her classroom skill, including the William Wiggins Award for Outstanding Associate Instructor Teaching from Indiana University.
She began her career as the outstanding bachelor of science in education graduate from A-State, returning to her home town of Forrest City as a teacher at Forrest City High School. Twice named teacher of the year at FCHS, she returned to A-State to complete her second degree with a masters in English, and became a full-time instructor for A-State in English.
Lanos Williams spent time in the graduate program for African American and African diaspora studies at Indiana University. She was an associate instructor in English and later associate instructor in the African American studies program at Indiana.
She returned home to Arkansas to pursue her master’s then doctorate in heritage studies, and in 2020 became an assistant professor for English and heritage studies.
“I am excited about this position because I am passionate about student success and retention,” Lanos Williams said. “Determination and persistence were the values I inherited from my parents, who were lifelong learners. I see the position of Honors College director as an opportunity to take all I have learned from being an educator, researcher, mentor and colleague and to apply it strategically to grow and to improve the Honors College.”
To learn more about the Honors College at A-State, go to AState.edu/Honors.
