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Middle Georgia State University appoints Dr. James Blackburn as the new Associate Provost of Academic Innovation

Dr. James Blackburn, EdD, MBA, joined Middle Georgia State University as the new Associate Provost of Academic Innovation in January 2023. He is leading the university's efforts to improve processes across the institution.

Dr. Blackburn is specifically responsible for identifying opportunities for institutional improvement, ranking improvement projects by impact and ease of completion, and recruiting improvement teams to provide recommendations to the Provost and Senior Leadership to resolve. 

Dr. Blackburn joined the university after leading several initiatives at Georgia State University for five years. He has worked with higher education for over twenty-five years. Dr. Blackburn's work focuses on improving student access and success through service design, quality improvement, data analytics, technology enablement, and behavioral economics.

Recently, Dr. Blackburn he has been studying how non-cognitive factors, such as socio-economic belief systems, impedes the academic progress of students. He hopes this research will lead to AI-enhanced interventions that will

He is a native Georgian and a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.