Bio:
Karl D. Gregory, Ph.D., is a former Assistant Chancellor for Urban Affairs under Chancellor W. D. Varner in 1968, the founding chief executive of MSU Oakland, now called Oakland University. Dr. Gregory retired as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the OU School of Business where he served from 1970 to 1996.An accomplished professor, leading economic advisor and lifelong activist for racial equality, civil and human rights, Dr. Gregory has advised Michigan governors and served in several U.S. government agencies, including the Bureau of the Budget, now called the Office of Management and Budget, and was a Visiting Scholar and executive staff member for the Congressional Budget Office in Washington, D.C. He was on the board of directors of the Detroit Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the chief organizer and first chairman of the board of directors of the First Independence National Bank of Detroit. He also advised the U.S. Census Bureau on the African-American population for the 1980 and 2010 censuses. Dr. Gregory worked with Reverend Jesse Jackson on an Economic Bill of Rights and was a consultant to the NAACP Task Force on Africa and was a U.N. Senior Economic Advisor for establishing an export zone in China.
Dr. Gregory has worked with many nonprofit organizations involving banking, business development, civil rights, and political action. He is passionate about helping students generally, and particularly underrepresented minority students, achieve success in education and was instrumental in the development of diversity and equal opportunity initiatives at OU.