GREGORY J. VINCENT.

Dr. Vincent’s Biography

Dr. Gregory J. Vincent (Bronx High School of Science, B.A. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, J.D. The Ohio State University, Ed.D. University of Pennsylvania) has served for over three decades as an award-winning education and nonprofit CEO, board chair, executive officer, tenured professor, and a trial and appellate litigator. He has successfully argued precedent-setting cases before the Ohio Supreme Court, managed budgets of up to $100 million for several national higher educational institutions and raised over $50 million in external funding. A dedicated philanthropist, Vincent has donated over a million dollars to several impactful organizations promoting athletics, educational excellence, civil rights, and healthy communities. He authored several publications and has presented over 500 continuing legal education seminars, keynote addresses, and panel discussions on civil liberties, athletics, employment, and education law issues in 35 states and countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Caribbean, and Europe. Vincent competed as a collegiate student-athlete, bringing substantial higher education, K-12, executive, and legal experience to the ever-evolving collegiate athletics and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) Landscape. 

Vincent is CEO and co-founder of Vincent Strategies, a global consulting firm focused on inclusive excellence, NIL, strategic planning, compliance, community engagement, leadership development, and philanthropy. He also owns Gregory Vincent Law LLC, an Ohio civil rights, education, NIL, Non-Profit, and employment law firm. Since 2018, Vincent Strategies and Gregory Vincent Law have successfully assisted several clients to meet and exceed their strategic goals, including public and private educational institutions, research and policy institutes, membership organizations, public and private law firms, corporations, and nonprofits. 

Since 2024, Vincent has also served as CEO and co-founder of the 360 NIL Group, a subsidiary of Vincent Strategies. The 360 NIL Group LLC is a dynamic consulting and education firm at the forefront of the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) era. Founded by experienced leaders across law, education, sports management, branding, wellness, and financial services, 360 NIL empowers college athletes, institutions, and NIL collectives to thrive in this rapidly evolving higher education and legal landscape. 360 NIL combines strategic expertise with a holistic approach, ensuring our clients are compliant, competitive, and positioned for sustainable, long-term success.

Dr. Vincent served as the 21st President of Talladega College from 2022-2024. In a challenging higher education environment, he led a team that enrolled two of the most academically talented classes in school history while continuing to serve as a national leader in social mobility. He also improved co-curricular offerings by reinstating the Honors Program, introducing the award-winning eSports, Battle of the Brains, and Hackathon teams, and rightsizing the Top Ten HBCU Band. The Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (HBCU Conference) awarded Talladega its prestigious All Sports Thomas Howell Cup for the 2023-2024 season. He also led the efforts to forge a strategic partnership with the Smithsonian American Art Museum and three key academic programs completed accreditation processes. A record number of donors contributed to Talladega from 2022 to 2024, including two gifts of over 1 million dollars. 

From 2020-2022, Vincent served nearly three years as an educational policy and law professor and the inaugural Executive Director of the Education and Civil Rights Initiative at the University of Kentucky. During his tenure, he hosted two national conferences and several webinars on civil rights and education law, taught K-12 and higher education law classes, including Alston v. NCAA, the Landmark US Supreme Court NIL case, and led a team that completed a comprehensive equity audit for a Kentucky public school district and report.

For 12 years, Vincent served as Vice President, W.K. Kellogg Professor, and Professor of Law at the University of Texas-Austin (UT). His portfolio was comprised of a $50 million budget and 40 units, including the first Texas university-sponsored public charter school system, the statewide University Interscholastic League, created by The University of Texas at Austin in 1910 and is the largest inter-school organization of its kind in the world, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the Office of Institutional Equity, five outreach centers across the state a community engagement center in East Austin, and Neighborhood Longhorns, the community engagement initiative for UT Athletics. As director of the Thematic Faculty Hire Initiative, he partnered with colleges, schools, and departments to hire over 60 faculty members in underrepresented academic areas. The Longhorn Center for Academic Excellence helped improve first-generation and underrepresented students’ first-year retention rate to 93%. Read the announcement and ten-year report. Vincent chaired the Equity and Student-Athlete Well-being Committee as part of a year-long campus-wide study of UT Men’s and Women’s Athletics as part of the Division 1 NCAA certification. He chaired the UT Chief Financial Officer search, where the incumbent managed a $2.87 Billion budget.

Vincent led the effort for the University to achieve the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement and the Diversity Champion Award from Insight Magazine. He taught K-12 and higher education law courses and was recognized as Professor of the Year by the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society. Vincent served as university spokesperson and helped develop the legal strategy for the United Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas.

During the 11 years before becoming Vice President and Professor at the University of Texas-Austin, Vincent held increasingly more responsible roles at three public flagship universities. He served as executive officer, vice provost, and law professor at Louisiana State University (LSU) and the University of Oregon, teaching education and employment law classes. As Vice Provost at both universities, he served on the President’s Cabinet and Dean’s Council. At LSU, Vincent was Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and Campus Diversity and managed a nearly $69 million budget. At LSU, he oversaw 230 full-time and 200 part-time employees and the activities of the Division of Continuing Education, Division of International Programs, the Academic Center for Student-Athletes, Fire and Emergency Training Institute, Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Women’s Center. He also served on the Athletics Council and chaired the Sports Agent Panel. Vincent also helped recruit several student-athletes, which helped LSU win several conference and national championships, including the 2004 BCS National Football Championship. 

Vincent served as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducting all high-profile investigations. As a law lecturer, he taught and helped overhaul the labor and employment law curriculum. Vincent also led a ten-month study of Human Resources and diversity issues as part of the university’s accreditation project. He established the Leadership Institute, which was held for two decades.

Before entering academia, Vincent joined the Ohio Attorney General’s Office as an assistant attorney general. In that position, he successfully argued precedent-setting civil rights cases before the Supreme Court of Ohio that set the standard for proving a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) in Ohio and established the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the Commission. These cases included Little Forest Medical Center v. The Civil Rights Commission and State, ex Rel Natalina v. Civil Rights Commission. He secured over a million dollars in settlements and judgments for complainants and won all appeals cases in Ohio courts. Vincent was promoted to Cleveland Regional Director, and then Legal and Regional Affairs Director for the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, where he and his team successfully investigated over 4000 civil rights investigations and helped Ohio state law become substantially equivalent to federal law. Later, as vice president at Bank One, a subsidiary of a Fortune 50 Company, he successfully represented the Bank before several state and federal agencies.

Vincent, the son of first-generation Americans and college graduates, attended New York City public schools and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, where he was recognized as a Regents Scholar and named a notable Alumnus. He earned a full academic scholarship to Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he competed on the basketball, cross country, and track teams and served as a resident advisor and student government representative. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Economics and was presented the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award at graduation. Vincent was also awarded a 2023 alumnus citation and recognized as a notable alumnus. Vincent served as president at his alma mater, where he managed a budget of $100 million and developed, with Board approval, the Path Forward Agenda, which strengthened co-curricular opportunities for students, successfully added six NCAA Athletic teams, reduced the budget deficit, and enrolled one of the largest classes in school history. He previously served on the HWS board of trustees.

Vincent received his Juris Doctor from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where he was awarded a full scholarship and was recognized as a notable alumnus. He received the 2012 Service Award and the 2022 Inclusive Excellence Award and, since 2008, has served on the National Advisory Council. He also received his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was named the 2016 Educator of the Year.

Vincent was unanimously elected as the 48th Grand Sire Archon (CEO and Chairman 2018-2020) of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity Inc., founded in 1904 as the first African American Greek letter organization and now comprised of 144 member boules across the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Caribbean. See the UNCF article. He is a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., founded in 1906 at Cornell University as the first intercollegiate African American Fraternity. From 2016 to 2020, he served as chair of the fraternity’s Commission on Racial Justice and is currently chair of the Educational Activities Committee. He has chaired several boards, including the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, St. James’ Episcopal Church Vestry, Communities in Schools of Central Texas, and the Austin Area Urban League.

Vincent has received over 100 awards for his professional and community service. The Cities of Austin, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Toledo, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; and Detroit, Michigan, awarded him proclamations. In 2023, Vincent was inducted into the HBCU Pre-Law Hall of Fame for his sustained commitment to increasing access to law school for underrepresented students. In 2019, he was named a Kentucky Colonel, the highest title of honor bestowed by the Governor of Kentucky.