Howard University has announced its next president, Ben Vinson III, a current provost, vice president, and history professor at Case Western Reserve University. Vinson, a historian of the African diaspora in Latin America, will take over for outgoing president Wayne A. I. Frederick on Sept. 1., the university announced Tuesday.

Vinson’s appointment comes after a year-long search that included a presidential search committee comprising students, faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as listening sessions throughout 2022 that were open to the entire Howard community, according to a press release.

Vinson, 52, takes over at a time of change for the 156-year-old historically Black institution in the nation’s capital. In just the past three years, the university has received major donations — the largest from MacKenzie Scott, who gave a record $40 million — and scored a $90 million, five-year contract with the Pentagon to lead a military systems research center. Howard has successfully recruited big-name faculty, including politician Stacey Abrams and reporters Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates, who helped the university found its Center for Journalism and Democracy. Under Frederick’s leadership, the storied university has improved its graduation rates, increased financial aid, and jumped more than 60 spots in the U.S. News & World Report top 100 rankings to reach number 89.

At the same time, outgoing president Frederick announced his retirement following a string of controversies on campus — including student protests over unsafe living conditions and accusations of low wages for faculty and unfair labor practices at the university’s hospital.

When Vinson takes over as Howard’s 18th president in the fall, he will have his hands full, but remarked on the university’s “incredible legacy” and “remarkable trajectory” in a statement.

“The opportunity to lead Howard at this historic juncture represents the honor of a lifetime,” Vinson said in the statement. “Our world needs Howard at maximum strength. I look forward to returning to the DMV, which I consider home, and working with the broader campus community to fortify Howard and help build upon its incredible tradition of delivering excellence, truth, and service to greater humanity.”

Vinson has been an educator, administrator, and researcher at the local and national level.

At Case Western, in Cleveland, he served as provost and executive vice president, and oversaw all aspects of the university’s research, helping to increase the enrollment of underrepresented minority first-year students by 8% over four years. Before his time at Case Western, he also served in senior leadership roles at George Washington University and Johns Hopkins University. Earlier in his career, Vinson served on faculties of Barnard College and Penn State University. (He referred to himself as a “living Diasporan” in a previous interview, in reference to his wide-ranging travels and professional experience as a Black man.)

Vinson told The Washington Post he calls D.C. “a hometown,” though he was born into an Air Force family in South Dakota and spent some of his childhood on military bases in Italy. He grew up in the D.C. area and graduated from Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, per the Post.

Vinson received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a doctorate in Latin American history from Columbia University. He’s a husband and a father of three. “In his scholarly pursuits, he studied Black religious festivals in Venezuela and examined the fluidity of race and class in Mexico,” according to a Howard press release.

In a video announcing his presidency, Vinson spoke of Howard’s impact, impressive list of alumni, and active student life.

“Howard University is accomplishing new heights in research, the accomplishments that are taking place in teaching, the constellation of stars who are coming to teach at Howard University,” he said. “What’s happening on the field, on the courts, in the pool is amazing. The band that magnetizes this campus, that brings and summons all individuals to come to ‘The Mecca’ [as Howard is known among its students and alumni]. In fact, students are applying like never before.”