Adriel A. Hilton is vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management at Southern University at New Orleans.  He previously served as dean of students and diversity officer at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where he provided strategic leadership and direction to the office of Housing and Residential Life, Community Standards, First Year & Transition Programs, Diversity & Inclusion, and International Student Services.  

Subsequent positions include the director of the Webster University Myrtle Beach Metropolitan Extended Campus; chief of staff and executive assistant to the president at Grambling State University; assistant professor and director of the Higher Education Student Affairs program at Western Carolina University; and inaugural assistant vice president for inclusion initiatives at Grand Valley State University.  He honed his expertise in higher education administration and teaching at Upper Iowa University (UIU) as executive assistant to the president and assistant secretary to the board of trustees, and adjunct faculty member at both UIU and the University of Northern Iowa.  Hilton was appointed UIU’s very first chief diversity officer.  

Hilton is also an avid scholar.  As a Frederick Douglass Teaching Scholar at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, he taught and developed academic programs within the Office of the Provost.  Previously, he served as the first public policy fellow at the Greater Baltimore Committee, a leading regional organization comprised of civic and business leaders in Baltimore, Maryland.  While there, Hilton worked closely with advisors to research, develop, and advocate a public policy agenda to advance the organization’s work in various areas, including access to health care.  

A profilic author and researcher, Hilton’s research is published in refereed journals, such as the Teachers College Record, Journal of College Student Development, Community College Review, Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, and the Journal of the Professoriate.  His numerous service commitments include membership on the editorial boards of the renowned Journal of Negro Education and the highly acclaimed College Student Affairs Journal.  

Hilton holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration, with a concentration in finance from Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia; a Master of Applied Social Science degree, with a concentration in public administration from Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Florida; a Master of Business Administration degree from Webster University, Saint Louis, Missouri; and a PhD in higher education, with a concentration in administration, from Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland.