On Nov. 14, Chancellor Keith Motley celebrated 10 years of tenure over the chancellorship at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

“These 10 years have been the best of my career, and they’ve gone by in a flash,” wrote chancellor Motley in an email to the university community members.

J. Keith Motley is the eighth chancellor of UMass Boston, and he is first African-American chancellor at UMass Boston.
Prior to his appointment as chancellor, Dr. Motley served various roles both on the UMass Boston campus and in the UMass System’s Office. He served as vice president for business, marketing, and public affairs at the University of Massachusetts President’s Office where he worked closely with President Jack M. Wilson, university leaders, and the Board of Trustees.
Prior to joining the President’s Office, he was the interim chancellor of UMass Boston, where he had previously served as vice chancellor for student affairs.

Under Chancellor Motley’s leadership the university has earned recognition by the Princeton Review as one of the 150 “Best Value Colleges” in the United States.
Winston Langley, provost at UMass Boston, says of chancellor Keith Motley the he is “the major force in the university transformation.” He added that to have UMass Boston become a top 150 research university in this country requires many things. “It requires stable leadership, it requires leadership with vision, it requires leadership that is committed to the ethnic of inclusion,” explained provost Langley. “All of these are part of the leadership attribute of Keith Motley,” he noted.

“Chancellor Motley has encouraged a more expansive view of diversity and has charged his new Office of Diversity and Inclusion with sussing out student, faculty, and staff perceptions of the campus environment that will help guide a strategic plan for diversity, ” wrote James H. Burnett, in a Boston Globe’ s article entitle “Champions of Diversity J. Keith Motley.” 

“[Chancellor Motley] has the ability to compel people and groups to think about the world differently than how they’re accustomed to doing,” said David G. Carter, upon Chancellor Motley’s appointment, in Boston Globe. Carter is a retired chancellor of the University of Connecticut system.

In a press release, by the Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership in 2009, it is said that Chancellor Motley represents UMass Boston locally, nationally and internationally. He also oversees newly launched and highly ambitious master plan and strategic planning initiatives. These reflect the university’s determination to remain true to its origins as a teaching institution while enhancing its standing in research, preparing its students to succeed in a transnational world, graduating significantly greater numbers to meet increasing demand for a well-educated workforce, and similarly growing as a source of knowledge and public service.  

Also, under Motley’s leadership, the share of people of color in executive administration roles has grown, as has the percentage of minority graduate students. Students of color, including the minority in general currently make  up 53 percent of UMass Boston’s STEM majors.